What we learned from Afcon 2025

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will be remembered for how it ended long ago.

At the conclusion of regulation time in the final, there were chaotic scenes as Senegal’s penalty was awarded, which caused a delay of over 16 minutes before Brahim Diaz’s Panenka attempt was saved.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has yet to release the sanctions, despite the fact that Atlas Lions manager Walid Regragui referred to the incident as “shameful.”

The tournament, however, had more going on.

What should not be detract from Senegal’s eventual victory in Rabat, which was largely well-organized and resulted in a record 121 goals scored.

Without a doubt, Morocco has built outstanding infrastructure, facilities, and stadiums, including the capital’s Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium.

The tournament’s staging was in part to get ready for Spain and Portugal to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

King Mohammed VI, who praised the country’s infrastructure as evidence of “resilience and a world-class level of readiness,” has benefited from significant investment over the past few years.

Even in the persistent rain, which has always been a challenge for Afcon hosts, the pitches held strong.

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation’s Omar Khyari told BBC Sport Africa, “We are incredibly happy with our technology.”

“We’re very happy because it shows the world that Africa sometimes does it better than other nations,” the group said. Perhaps more importantly, Moroccan companies are the owners of all of this technology.

Although East African media representatives were appreciative of what they saw, it is unlikely that future co-hosts Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will be able to produce anything of the same caliber.

Hussein Mohammed, president of the Kenyan football federation, acknowledged Morocco’s “new standard” for hosting but that “key steps” are being taken to enhance existing infrastructure in advance of 2027.

Caf reports that Afcon’s revenue has increased by 90%, with ticket sales rising significantly from $11 million to $55 million at the Moroccoian edition in 2023.

Additionally, it has raised the number of major sponsors from 23 to 23, and improved social media coverage has raised the profile of the finals.

Caf anticipated a net profit of more than $114 million from the finals in comparison to a loss of $ 75 million in the previous year.

People will wonder why Caf decided to switch to quadrennial hosting from 2028 instead of having a biennial one because it is going to host its third Women’s Nations Cup in a row despite these figures and an increased profile.

One of the women’s team stars of Nigeria, Asisat Oshoala, recently criticized Morocco as the “new headquarters” of African football, calling it “getting boring” to travel there so frequently.

On the flip side, officiating standards were frequently raised in doubt.

Before the semi-final against Nigeria, Morocco manager Regragui went as far as to criticize conspiracy theorists who claimed referees had been favoring the hosts.

He claimed that, “I watch a lot of matches, and the debates are the same everywhere, whether in Africa or Europe.”

A significant example of this is the final, which Jean-Jacques Ndala successfully won up until the final whistle and when everything just fell apart.

Senegal’s second of what was scheduled to be eight more minutes, which was followed by the Congolese’s decision to throw the ball into the Morocco net six minutes later, contributed to a sense of injustice.

Following a nearly faultless application at the 2023 edition, the use of video assistant referee reviews has definitely taken a backseat.

After Morocco’s contentious penalty award, Teranga Lions fans clashed with security inside the stadium, which caused unpleasant scenes inside.

Other instances of fans squatting in crushes or penned into tight spaces were reported to BBC Sport Africa.

As evidenced by incidents at the Euro 2020 and 2022 Uefa Champions League finals, crowd control is a serious issue in African football as well.

The FSF also complained about the lack of 4, 000 tickets for the final, which took place in a 69, 500-capacity stadium before the game.

It will also be interesting to see if Caf exhibits any of the gamesmanship displayed on Sunday, when Moroccan ballboys attempted to remove the towel from one of Senegal’s goalkeepers behind the goal.

After eliminating all yellow cards after the group stage, Caf must undoubtedly consider changing its rules for bookings in knockout games.

In the semi-finals, 20 players were aware that a second caution after three matches would send them out of the final.

If their sides had advanced, Hossam Abdelmaguid and fellow Senegalese captain Kalidou Koulibaly and midfielder Habib Diarra would have suffered the same fate as they would have experienced with Calvin Bassey and Hossam Abdelmaguid, respectively.

While discipline is crucial, the best XIs can be seen playing in the biggest games, according to coaches, players, supporters, and the media.

In addition, three times in a row were required to draw lots to separate sides with identical records in the group stage.

Guinea and Mali were the only other countries to finish in third place at an Afcon in 2015, when they advanced ahead of them. At some point, it would have been necessary to decide which team would finish as the final of four third-place finishers.