{"id":412898,"date":"2026-01-17T12:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T12:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412898\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T12:17:07","slug":"senegal-slam-morocco-over-lack-of-fair-play-ahead-of-afcon-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412898\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal slam Morocco over &#8216;lack of fair play&#8217; ahead of AFCON final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan 16, 2026, 09:51 PM ET<\/p>\n<p>RABAT, Morocco &#8212; The Senegalese Football Federation has made serious complaints about the way its national soccer team is being treated in Morocco ahead of Sunday&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/caf.nations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Africa Cup of Nations<\/a> final against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team\/_\/id\/2869\/morocco\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Morocco<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The federation, known as FSF, issued a statement in the early hours of Saturday morning in which it criticized an alleged lack of security arrangements for the team&#8217;s arrival in Rabat, problems with the team&#8217;s accommodation, issues with the training facilities, and difficulties getting a fair ticket allocation for its supporters.<\/p>\n<p>It called on the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the local organizing committee to &#8220;immediately take every corrective measure to guarantee respect for the principles of fair play, equal treatment, and security indispensable for the success of this celebration of African football.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team\/_\/id\/654\/senegal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Senegal<\/a>&#8216;s players traveled by train from Tangier to Rabat on Friday, but found what the federation said was a &#8220;clear lack of adequate security measures&#8221; upon their arrival.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This deficiency exposed the players and technical staff to overcrowding and risks incompatible with the standards of a competition of this magnitude and the prestige of a continental final,&#8221; the federation said.<\/p>\n<p>The federation said it had to file a formal written complaint to get adequate hotel accommodation for the team after its arrival in Rabat. It did not describe the condition of the accommodation the team was first offered.<\/p>\n<p>The federation said it notified CAF of its &#8220;categorical refusal&#8221; to hold team training sessions at the Mohammed VI Complex, which is where the Morocco team has been based for the whole tournament. Morocco will also train there Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The federation said it &#8220;raises a question of sporting fairness&#8221; and that it still had not been informed of where the Senegal team can train.<\/p>\n<p>In the media activities agenda for Saturday, shared with media on Friday, Senegal&#8217;s training session location was still to be confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>The federation said the ticketing situation was &#8220;concerning.&#8221; It was only able to purchase 2,850 tickets for its supporters as per the maximum limits authorized by CAF.<\/p>\n<p>The federation said the allocation is &#8220;insufficient given the demand&#8221; and that it &#8220;deplores the imposed restrictions, which penalize the Senegalese public.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The capacity of the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, which is hosting the final, is 69,500 fans. Morocco has been buoyed by vociferous support in all its games so far. It&#8217;s unlikely the final will be any different.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco is bidding to end a 50-year wait for its second Africa Cup title. Senegal, which won the 2021 trophy, is also going for its second title.<\/p>\n<p>The federation said it was making its complaints public &#8220;In the interest of transparency and to defend the interests of the Senegalese national team.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 16, 2026, 09:51 PM ET RABAT, Morocco &#8212; The Senegalese Football Federation has made serious complaints about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-412898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}