Senegal, the AFCON trophy and a day of defiance in Paris: 'A people’s memory cannot be rewritten'

Paris — The Stade de France shook on Saturday evening, not merely because of the 68,000 spectators inside, but because of what they had come to defend. Senegal’s footballers, coaching staff and supporters staged a public reclamation of the Africa Cup of Nations trophy, 57 days after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) declared the title forfeited to hosts Morocco.

Two stars still sit above the national badge on every Senegal shirt, a silent rebuttal to the CAF appeals committee ruling that turned a 1-0 extra-time Senegalese victory in January’s Rabat final into a 3-0 forfeit win for Morocco. The decision, delivered on 28 February, cited Senegal’s temporary walk-off in protest at a late penalty award. Senegal’s government labelled the move an “attempt at unjustified dispossession,” and the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) has since taken the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) while lodging a criminal complaint against five individuals, none of them Moroccan federation officials.

Saturday’s friendly against Peru therefore became more than a World Cup warm-up. It was billed on social media as a trophy presentation, and the diaspora responded: trains from the Paris banlieues disgorged green, yellow and red; metro carriages rang with chants of “Nous sommes les champions!”; and outside the stadium vendors sold T-shirts bearing two stars long before kick-off.

Inside, a pre-match montage tracked the trophy’s journey from Dakar to Paris. When captain Kalidou Koulibaly emerged with the cup hoisted high, the roar rattled the upper tiers. The squad paraded the golden prize to every stand, pausing so head coach Pape Thiaw — architect of the Rabat walk-off — could lift it alone. A framed photograph with singer and former tourism minister Youssou N’Dour followed, then Koulibaly and stand-in skipper Edouard Mendy climbed to the VIP level. Mendy raised the trophy in one hand, flashed two fingers with the other, and set the cup on a Senegal flag draped in front of FSF president Abdoulaye Fall. It remained there throughout the 2-0 victory, guarded at half-time by a lone steward who, at full-time, zipped it into a rucksack and delivered it back to the players.

None of Koulibaly, Mendy or Sadio Mané featured on the pitch, yet Nicolas Jackson and Ismaila Sarr scored stylishly to suggest Group I opponents France and Norway, plus Tuesday’s Iraq-Bolivia play-off winner, will meet a confident side at the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The bigger contest, however, is being fought in offices 600 kilometres away. CAS in Lausanne is expected to need seven to nine months to rule on Senegal’s appeal; the FSF will request an accelerated procedure, though CAF and Morocco must agree. That timeline ensures the controversy will shadow the Lions into the global tournament.

In the mixed zone, Mendy cut short one reporter who queried whether he still considered himself champion. “Why should I not feel like an African champion?” he asked. “Everybody feels that Senegal are the champions… the football on the pitch is going faster than these people in the offices.” He later posted online: “A people’s memory cannot be rewritten. We will continue to defend what we have earned. Not out of arrogance, but out of respect for the game. And for the truth.”

Midfielder Lamine Camara admitted the squad still discusses the saga daily, while national-team ambassador El Hadji Diouf suggested a CAS victory should be marked with a third star. For now, Senegal’s supporters are content to celebrate the second, regardless of what any paper decree says.

As 25-year-old Senegalese-Guinean fan Khady Mendes put it before kick-off: “Come and get the cup if you want it.” On Saturday night in Paris, no one dared try.