Almost three months after the initial events, the final of the CAN 2025 continues to generate significant debate. On January 18th in Rabat, Sénégal initially secured a victory on the field after extra time, with a score of 1-0. However, on March 17th, the Confédération africaine de football ultimately reversed this outcome, granting the win to Maroc with a 3-0 score via forfeiture.
To justify this decision, the appeals jury referenced articles 82 and 84 of the regulations, which state that a team leaving the field or refusing to resume play is automatically declared to have lost. This interpretation has been strongly contested by the Fédération sénégalaise, which has escalated the matter to the Tribunal arbitral du sport (TAS) to seek an annulment of this verdict.
While awaiting the TAS’s ruling, Edouard Mendy has broken his silence to champion the position of the Lions de la Teranga. During an appearance on the Saudi podcast Mo Show Prod, the Al-Hilal goalkeeper presented his version of events, which directly contradicts the accusations of collective abandonment put forth by the Moroccan side.
Mendy, who emerged as a hero in the final after saving Brahim Diaz’s penalty, emphasized a critical detail. « People claimed we all left the field during the final, but that’s incorrect. There were still players on the pitch. It’s very important to highlight this, » he stated.
Edouard Mendy advocates for Sénégal’s stance
Following this, he cited the report from referee Jean-Jacques Ndala to substantiate his argument: « And that’s why the referee didn’t blow the final whistle. He mentioned in the report that the match was paused temporarily, but not that the team abandoned it, because players remained on the field. »
For the former Chelsea goalkeeper, the match did indeed resume, which would invalidate any claim of a forfeit: « The match was stopped for a moment and then restarted, so from that point on, there’s no need to discuss what happened because the match continued to its conclusion. If the entire team had been absent, we wouldn’t be discussing this today. But that wasn’t the situation. »
Nevertheless, this account does not entirely resolve all ambiguities. According to Afrik Foot, the official report, corroborated by video evidence, indicates that almost the entire team, with the sole exception of Sadio Mané, had indeed exited the pitch for several minutes, including Edouard Mendy himself, who was reportedly among the first to head to the changing rooms. The battle of narratives persists as the football world awaits the definitive verdict from the TAS.