Abdoulaye Fall, the president of the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF), on Sunday criticised Morocco and the Confederation of African Football one week after the controversial end to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Senegal beat hosts Morocco 1-0 after extra time in the final, after some players briefly walked off when the hosts were awarded a penalty late in normal time.
Fall listed shortcomings in accommodation, security and refereeing, and suggested that the home nation had received preferential treatment.
“No country opposed Morocco as Senegal did,” Fall said in a video posted on the Senegalese website Seneweb.
Fall, speaking in the local Wolof language at a ceremony on Saturday, pointed out that Moroccan Fouzi Lekjaa is one of the vice-presidents of the African Football Confederation (CAF), which “Morocco controls. Let’s tell the truth”, he said.
Fall complained about the late announcement of the match officials for the final.
“We had to know who the referee for the match was two days before. We asked them who it would be and they told us they didn’t have any information yet. There are deadlines for possibly challenging a referee (but) it was the night before the match, at 10 p.m., that we were notified,” Fall said.
He said that CAF explained that it “wanted to protect the referee by sparing him pressure” but that meant that “we could no longer challenge him”.
Fall also complained about the hotel assigned to the Senegal squad in Rabat for the final, having spent the earlier rounds based in Tangier.
“The Senegalese team could not stay in this hotel in the city centre with a lot of noise and no access road.”
Furthermore, when the team arrived in Rabat, the players found themselves without security, he said.
He also complained that the Moroccans “wanted to force us to train at their base camp, the ultra-modern Mohamed VI centre, which is unrivalled in Senegal.”
“If we had gone there, they would have known everything about our team.”
Fall said that after he threatened not to play the final, security was stepped up, the team were able to train in another stadium and a new hotel was found for them.
In the final, Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala ruled out a late Senegal strike for a foul and then, after another video review, awarded the host country a penalty.
Some of the Senegalese players briefly walked off while their supporters attempted to invade the pitch as play was halted for 15 minutes.
When it resumed, Brahim Diaz missed the penalty.
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