AFCON Final 2026: Were Senegal right to walk off?

 

After a memorable four-week tournament, the clock in the final of the 2026 African Cup of Nations ticks over 90 minutes in the pouring rain in Rabat.

A corner is floated into the penalty area of Senegal, who have just had a goal disallowed for a soft foul, and Moroccan star Brahim Diaz hurls himself to the ground under pressure from West Ham United defender El Hadji Malick Diouf.

Congolese referee Jean-Jaques Ngambo, under intense pressure from hosts Morocco’s players and supporters in the national stadium, is advised to go to the touchline monitor, and decides that there is enough contact to give the penalty.

To say that the Senegalese were incensed would not do the situation justice. Not even close.

After a touchline fracas, manager Pape Thiaw, animated on the touchline, beckons for his players to walk off the pitch.

In those few moments, African football held its breath. The long-running story of controversy at the AFCON finals, particularly where match officiating is concerned, had just had another chapter written.

It was the kind of scene that the tournament organisers dreaded – a memorable tournament on the pitch, and yet this will be the lasting scene from the showpiece final in Rabat.

Credit must go to Sadio Mane. The Senegalese captain and talisman, the greatest player the small, West African country had ever produced, was the only figure in a green shirt that stayed on the pitch, and was caught by TV cameras beckoning figures on the bench, and in the tunnel, back onto the pitch.

After an indeterminate length of time, the Senegal squad emerged from the dressing room and took their positions ready for Diaz to take his penalty, with 90+23 minutes on the clock.

And, as if the scriptwriters had not already created the most improbable story, Diaz, who has scored in every one of his AFCON matches this tournament prior to the semi-final victory over Nigeria, decided to try to write his name in Moroccan football history… with a Panenka penalty.

Goalkeeper Edouard Mendy read the penalty perfectly, and stood still to catch the ball as Diaz nonchalantly chipped the ball down the middle of the goal.

Moroccan heartbreak. Senegalese jubilation.

What’s more, Senegal would go on to lift the trophy following Pape Gueye’s extra-time winner, for the second time, after previously winning in 2021.

Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder Jon Obi Mikel, working on Channel 4’s coverage of the final, did not hold back on what he thought of the decision by Ngambo to give a penalty.

“I can understand their frustration,” Mikel explained. “But walking off the pitch is not what we want to see.

Fellow Nigerian Efan Ekoku, working as co-commentator, stated, “I think [the decision] was soft. I think it was foolish and reckless by Diouf, but the decision has been made and the players have to abide by that. Whatever happens now is not a good look for African football.”

 

Even with a victory that Senegal would feel carried justice, this was not a comfortable victory for football. The introduction of VAR was supposed to put an end to controversial decisions, not provide the fuel for more drama.

For Senegal, the anger was heightened by the wider context of the match: a goal was disallowed minutes before for a similarly soft foul. Time and time again, footballers ask for consistency in refereeing decisions – but common sense felt absent in this scenario.

For Morocco, meanwhile, the pain resonates deeper because of what might have been. A home final in the nation’s capital, a nation united, and a decision that offered salvation rather than certainty.

The fact that Diaz squandered the chance to make history does not erase the uncomfortable truth: no host should ever be placed in a position where legitimacy becomes part of the post-match debate.

Senegalese manager Thiaw’s decision to beckon his players toward the tunnel will rightly draw criticism in the near future. Football cannot survive if teams abandon the pitch whenever injustice is perceived – but his reaction seemed to imply that protest was his only option.

 

The 2026 Africa Cup of Nations was, in many ways, a triumph on the pitch, yet its final will be remembered not only for Senegal’s resilience in extra time, but for a moment when the game hovered dangerously close to losing control.

It should be emphasised that Senegal are worthy champions. But African football, a sport that represents, and is represented by, billions of people in a continent depleted by famine, drought and political uncertainty, deserves more than outcomes rescued by missed penalties and late goals. It deserves officiating structures robust enough that no referee appears isolated, no team feels unheard, and no final teeters on the brink of disorder.

Because even when the right team lifts the trophy, the questions raised along the way do not simply disappear.