Afcon 2025: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The 35^th edition of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations came to end on Sunday in Morocco with Senegal claiming their second star after beating hosts 1-0 in the final.

For the last one month, the football world has had all eyes on Africa with icons including former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane and the Fifa President Gianni Infantino all coming down to watch matches.

Having spent a month covering the tournament that took place in six different cities and nine stadiums, here is a recap that has the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good

• The infrastructure and organisation: This will go down as the best Afcon tournament in terms of organisation and infrastructure. From the stadia, to the transport network (air, railway and road), the hotels and training pitches, everything was up to world class standards. Even under heavy rains, the pitches remained playable with Morocco showcasing to the world why they are co-hosting the Fifa World Cup come 2030.

• Exciting football: Probably due to the nice pitches, the football displayed was exciting with top quality. Every team in the tournament played neat football even in defeat and although there were no upsets, even the small teams played well in terms of performance.

• Big names put up a show: African top European based players have always been accused of not giving priority to their national teams especially when it comes to Afcon since it happens midway the season. However, it has been different in Morocco with almost all big names showing up in beast mode.

Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush were massive for Egypt, Amad Diallo gave everything for Ivory Coast, Achraf Hakimi, Nassour Mazraoui and Brahim Diaz put their bodies on line for Morocco, Victor Osimhen, Alex Iwobi, Ademola Lookman and Calvin Bassey were massive for Ivory Coast.

Then Sadio Mane, Idrissa Gueye (Senegal), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria) etc. all played their hearts out.

• Emergency of Young Talents: Senegal’s Lamine Camara was a sensation, Morocco’s Neil Aynaoui showed great control and vision, Ivory Coast’s emerging talents in Yan Diamonde and Inao Oulai plus Mozambique’s Geny Catamo as well as Cameroon’s Christian Kofane all did well.

The Bad

• Weather: The timing of the tournament coincided with changes in the weather conditions as Morocco experienced winter that came with rains along.

Although matches were uninterrupted due to nice pitches, it was a big inconvenience to the fans in the stands in a few stadiums that didn’t have a canopy and also affected some teams’ performance.

• The refereeing: Looking back at the past few weeks, there has been a huge amount of debate about refereeing decisions and VAR especially in matches involving the hosts. Many coaches, fans and journalists complained about Morocco getting favours and incidents can be cited. They should have conceded a penalty in each of their matches against Mali, Tanzania and Cameroon.

Nigeria right back Bright Samuel-Osayi described the refereeing in their defeat in the semis as appalling while in the final, many believe Senegal’s goal should have stood accusing Hakimi of going down easily as they defended a corner late in the game.

It even got to a point where refereeing appointments for certain games were becoming a talking point on social media, which put a lot of pressure on the officials before certain games with Caf President Patrice Motsepe also coming out to state that no team should be above others when it comes to treatment.

• Death of journalist: Mohamed Soumare, a journalist from Mali breathed his last during the coverage of the tournament. He passed away in his hotel room. CAF and the media had a moment of silence in commemoration of his works during a media engagement with president Motsepe. May his soul Rest in Peace.

The Ugly

• Chaotic finale: For all the praises Morocco have received for the organisation that includes infrastructure, stadiums and travel links, the scenes after Morocco were awarded a late penalty in the final will be the most remembered about this tournament.

Senegal coach Pape Thiaw called his players off the pitch while fans in the stands were involved in a scuffle with stewards and security.

The match was temporarily stopped for 17 minutes before resumption and whatever happened after, damage had already been made.

Senegal coach later apologized for his decision but football will never forgive him.

“We didn’t agree,” he said. “I don’t want to go over all the incidents. I apologize for the football. After reflecting on it I made them come back [on the pitch] – you can react in the heat of the moment. We accept the errors of the referee.

“We shouldn’t have done it but it’s done and now we present our apologies to football.”

From Infantino to ex-players including Obi Mikel, the decision to walk off is unacceptable regardless of the injustice.