Morocco Will Seek to Win the Africa Cup of Nations by Appealing to the Rules

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Article 82, the last hope of the Atlas Lions.

After the 1-0 victory of the Senegalese team over Morocco, complaints and claims to be presented to FIFA and CAF. In the last minutes of the second half, more precisely during added time, the Moroccan team wins a penalty in their favor. It is then that the Senegal team decides to leave the field, a decision that took about 15 minutes to be reversed.

Once the players return to the field, the match resumes with the penalty. The one in charge of taking the shot was Brahim Díaz, who tried to perform a panenka shot, but the Senegalese goalkeeper Mendy managed to stay in the middle of the goal and saved it without much difficulty.

What is Article 82?

Morocco's last hope is to appeal to Article 82, Chapter 35, of the regulations, which states that if a team leaves the field without prior authorization from the referee, it will be eliminated from the championship. In this way, Morocco would be declared the champion of the African Cup of Nations, considering that their opponent would be disqualified from the competition.

The great dilemma

The problem Morocco faces with its approach is that the match was resumed and the game was completed. The result was favorable for Senegal, given the fact that the referee resumed the match, a sporting sanction would seem unlikely compared to some disciplinary sanction. The latter type of sanctions would not take the victory away from Senegal but could suspend players and coaches from matches and FIFA dates, for example, preventing their participation in the first matches of the World Cup.

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