Lessons from AFCON 2025

On January 18, 2026, the month-long Africa’s biggest football fiesta came to an end in Rabat, the Moroccan capital city with Senegal’s Teranga  Lions emerging champions after a tension-soaked match against the host country’s team, the Atlas Lions.

Nigeria’s Super Eagles emerged third after beating Egypt in the third place match the penultimate day before the final game.

A total of 52 matches were played during the tournament recording 121 goals, averaging 2.33 goals per match. Total attendance was 1, 340, 022 at 25, 770 per match.

The tournament stood out as a display of Afrca’s passion for football as both participating teams, officials and fans trooped into various venues displaying the different attires and culture that makes Africa a proud continent.

Indeed, The Kingdom of Morocco must be praised for the excellent organization and facilities provided for the tournament. This goes to buttress the fact that indeed the country is deserving of its being chosen along with Spain and Portugal to host the 2030 World Cup by FIFA, the global football federation.

But it must be said that while Morocco is deservedly praised for its organisation of the AFCON 25, it must be stated however that certain aspect of the tournament did not go well as expected.

Unfortunately, the tournament fell far short in expectation in officiating. It exposed that African football referees and indeed football officials have a soul searching to do to redeem the image of the continent in the eyes of the footballing world.

The flagrant display of biases in many of the matches did not conform with the major tenets of such tournaments of ensuring fairness among participating teams.

Match officials show open favouritism against teams especially in matches involving the host nation.

The incidence of poor officiating all along the tournament reached a climax at the final game between Senegal and Morocco when the Senegalese team walked out of the field of play following a highly questionable penalty award against them by the center referee. As play was held up for some minutes before resumption, this cast a poor light on the tournament and on the continent.

In the light of this unsavoury development, it is welcomed that CAF has handed out heavy fines to the Senegalese and Moroccan players and football associations for bringing the game to disrepute. We at the Daily Trust feel that CAF should go beyond these. It should also investigate and punish the conduct of referees found guilty of engaging in poor officiating of particular matches which should serve to show its zero tolerance of such unprofessional conduct.

Another area of note is that of attendance at the matches. As the apex football tournament in Africa which involves the very best of African football and players playing at the highest levels of world football, the relatively poor attendance rate of the matches showing rows of empty seats in the stadiums does not make good advertisement for African football. The presence of the likes of Mohammed Sallah, Sadio Mane, Victor Osimhen, Riyad Mahrez, among others, who play at the highest level of football before massive crowds week in week out,  ought to have been better respected with greater attendance we saw at the AFCON 2025.

Obviously, this indicated that the Moroccan authorities and CAF did not give the tournament the wide publicity and mobilization necessary to get as many people to attend the matches. This should be a very important take home for the Moroccan Football Association to work on in time for the 2030 World Cup which it will feature as co-host.

As for Nigeria’s performance although the Super Eagles once again came up short ending up as third best, there are some positive lessons to take. Up to the semi-final, which they lost by penalty kicks, the Super Eagles had won all their matches impressively. In the process the team jelled perfectly which was attributed to the tactical acumen of Coach Eric Chelle. Many Nigerians praised his ability to instill discipline in the team and making the right selections for the matches played. With what Nigerians saw, if Chelle can maintain the present momentum in the camp, the Super Eagles will achieve more to the satisfaction of Nigerians.

We, therefore, hope the Nigeria Football Federation (NFA) would take lessons from the tournament with a view to evolving ways to improve on the team’s performances in future competitions.

The perennial issue of unpaid allowances, which surfaced during the tournament, should not be allowed to rear its head again. It reflected badly on the image of Nigeria that once again bonus payments owed the players were not paid leading to near unrest in the Sper Eagles camp. This is unacceptable. Players like every other official need to be paid all allowances and promptly.

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