Rabat – Diario Ole, one of Argentina’s major daily sports newspapers, has emphasized that recent measures by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) have strengthened Morocco’s AFCON case against Senegal.
IFAB and FIFA recently approved a new disciplinary rule allowing referees to issue straight red cards to players who leave the pitch to protest against a referee’s decision.
The change was passed on April 28 and will officially pass into law at the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
With IFAB’s decision, Diario Ole argued, sporting regulations now overwhelmingly side with Morocco in denouncing Senegal’s walkoff during the AFCON final as reprehensible and unjustifiable.
“The body that creates, reviews, and amends the Laws of the Game, with the approval of FIFA – which holds four of its eight votes – made a key decision: It approved issuing a direct red card to players or coaches who leave the field of play due to disagreement with the referee’s decisions,” the report recalled.
It detailed that the ruling comes on the heels of AFCON’s final as a response to Senegal’s team leaving the pitch without authorization from the referee.
Read also: Infantino Backs New Disciplinary Rules: Unauthorized Exit Means Red Card
Had this new measure been in application when Senegal walked off the pitch on January 18, all Senegalese players except Mane would have been handed red cards. This would have made Morocco the champions by forfeit.
And it is exactly that conclusion that CAF’s appeal board reached when it recently deliberated on the controversial AFCON final.
Leaving the pitch as Senegal did amounted to an unacceptable and indefensible breach of the laws governing the continental tournament, the CAF board concluded, thereby indirectly setting the stage for FIFA and IFAB to conclusively act toward preventing a repeat of Senegal’s misconduct in Rabat on January 18.
As watchers of the AFCON controversy now await the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which Senegal seized after the CAF appeal body stripped it of the AFCON tournament, the prevailing sentiment is that CAS will most likely uphold CAF’s decision.
“The connection to the final between Morocco and Senegal is direct. That day after the penalty awarded to the home team, chaos began,” Diario Ole noted, adding that IFAB and FIFA measures seek to ensure that institutional discipline and composure prevail over emotions, anger, and heated reactions in high-stakes games.