HAfter AFCON’s decision to disqualify Senegal from the African Cup of Nations and declare Morocco as champions, Senegal is still in disbelief at the unprecedented decision. Pape Diop showed the discomfort and anger that his country is experiencing in “El Programa de Ortega”.
“When I saw this, I thought ‘fake news’. I couldn’t believe it. Now we are a little helpless about what will happen. Senegalese people are very angry and all they talk about is this,” he said. “We are all waiting to see what happens. We hope that after the appeal we will be granted another victory. People are very angry right now, but if that happens it will be very sad for Senegal, who have sacrificed so much to win. It will be very painful to have a victory taken away like that.”
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Before the finals, we started experiencing very strange events. Changed from a hotel in Rabat two days before the match, there was no security at the station and the players were left unprotected…
A big stain on African football
Senegal once again appealed to AFCON to return the titles won on the field to the federation’s trophy cabinet. “It’s unbelievable. It’s the first time in history that the cup is taken away after three months,” he said. “The saddest thing is that it really tarnishes African football and AFCON and does us no good because after the African Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, African football has become more and more respected and this speaks very badly of the people who run football,” he said.
Former Espanyol and Levante player Pape Diop experienced the controversial final firsthand and said there were already doubtful circumstances before the match. “Even before the final, we had already begun to experience very strange events. Two days before the match, we were changed from a hotel in Rabat, there was no security at the station, the players were left defenseless, and we had to endure a lot of things that are not normal for an organization. The referee lost control of everything that happened that day, which resulted in this,” he said.
