Today, I am too itchy not to scratch my pen at this obvious and singular calamity, a veritable plague of Egypt with Cairo where its headquarters are located, as the spectacle offered by the Confederation of African Football resembles a bad Senegalese series, filmed at night, without lights; in a fast bus, in the middle of the Soumbédioune tunnel.

So, just like that, by some sleight of hand worthy of a magician playing cards at the Sandaga market, Morocco is awarded a victory by default for the 2025 AFCON? We're being pulled off another one of those crazy tricks ! It's pure and simple sporting fraud, a blatant robbery under the spotlights shone by Patrice Motsepe and his gang right in our bewildered eyes. But they shouldn't be fooled: they won't succeed in swindling us out of their 'CAF-ard'...!

The elixir is drunk, the rest is just junk

The Senegalese people, for their part, have already rejoiced and celebrated. They thrilled, they roared, they celebrated their victory on January 18, 2026, and for the seventy-two hours that followed. No sports bureaucrat in a polyester suit can erase that emotion with the stroke of a pen. If the CAF wants to return the "Championship Cup" to the Moroccans, or if they decide to fabricate a replica in a Casablanca foundry, so be it! It's a lost cause: the elixir of joy and the glory of the achievement are gone. The Cup is empty; we have already tasted the nectar.

The Senegalese, with their legendary fatalistic composure, couldn't care less. Out of pure, ingrained "Téranga spirit" (hospitality), we would gladly grant them the title of "finalists victorious by decree." It's our magnanimous side: we offer the trophy when we already possess the glory.

From the TAS of Geneva to the “Tasss” of Dakar

But make no mistake, Teranga is not a weakness. The battle has only just begun. We will go again to the CAF, then to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) in Geneva. And let's remind our Swiss, Moroccan, and South African friends: in Wolof, "Tasss" means "to be utterly exhausted," or better yet, "to break into a thousand pieces." That's exactly what we intend to do with this unjust, pathetic, and ridiculous decision.

And if the CAS persists? We'll take it to the International Criminal Court in The Hague! We will file a complaint for crimes against sporting humanism and athletic genocide on African soil. They tell us it will take time? We don't care! We'll wait ten years if necessary, like we did for Laurent Gbagbo. We'll end up exonerated, and history will remember the infamy. Just like Gbagbo, who wasn't convicted by the ICC after, nevertheless, ten years of imprisonment in The Hague.

The Cup is locked in a vault at the BCEAO-Senegal

Until then, the authorities can rest assured: the trophy is safe. It sleeps peacefully in the basement of the BCEAO Senegal national branch, right next to our gold bars and hard currency. It's better guarded there than the secret recipe for mbaxalou goordjiguènne. It's secured with an electronic bracelet and a mandatory weekly visit for a formal presentation in President Diomaye's office.

Furthermore, if we follow the logic of these post-match revisions, let's take absurdity to its extreme: let's cancel Maradona's "Hand of God" goal (may he rest in peace)! Let's give Schumacher a retrospective red card for his karate-style foul on Battiston in the 1982 World Cup! And let's not forget that 50 years ago, in 1976, it was Morocco who boycotted an AFCON final by walking off the pitch before returning to win. A word to the wise!

A "Belgian joke with Moroccan couscous" that ends in fits of laughter

Yes, they're spinning their wheels (in couscous) over in Cairo and Rabat! But this rock 'n' roll attempt by Morocco and Co. to knock us out doesn't even faze us. It's a Belgian joke, Sharifian style (by the way, there are a lot of Moroccans in Belgium, it really puts a smile on their faces...) that makes us chuckle. Excess is harmful in all things? It's also laughable. From kindergarten benches to open-air Koranic schools, Senegal is roaring with laughter. We don't always show our teeth (whether they're white or not) when we laugh, but right now, our diaphragms have been doing some serious heaving for the past 48 hours. Standing tall in our thiarakhs, we Senegalese remain, for the previous AFCON as for the next, TOTALLY energetic. The CAS procedure, without prior legal training on the spot, all Senegalese know that this will lead us to the 2027 AFCON so that our Lions of Teranga can bring the Cup back to Dakar-Kandaarou, for a celebration that will set the record straight and turn the Senegalese crowds upside down.

Senegal does not bend, it "Tasss".

However, accustomed as I am to discussing serious matters lightly and light matters with utmost seriousness, I cannot conclude without a somber note on this slow-motion suicide of the CAF, Motsepe version. So then: out of the depths. In Africa, the flagship competition of the king of sports has gone from a top-ten business winner and a massive entertainment industry to a mafia in suits and a stock exchange... a stock exchange of thieves rife with insider trading. Stock market speculators and cliques. "Africa, the only continent where anything (even the worst) can still happen?" That is the message being sent to Africans and the entire world. The predictability of facts, outcomes, positive or negative sanctions, and events is the very condition for the existence of a civilized human society. As if the continental misfortune wasn't enough in every African household, to have the announcement made at the start of the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco that, from 2029 onwards, it will be held every four years...

Ousseynou Nar Gueye

Founder of Tract Hebdo ( www.tract.sn ) and President of Option Nouvelles Générations - Woornë Niu Dokhal