Who watched the chaotic AFCON cup final this weekend? Senegal walks off and refuses to play, fans storm the pitch, and a second-string player who became a national hero blocking Morocco’s ball boys from stealing Senegal’s goalkeeper’s used towel (allegedly to do witchcraft with)

ESPN roundup says, "Nothing could have been more embarrassing for African football"

Al Jazeera says, "The reputational damage to African football will linger for a long time."

Big names playing included former Liverpool star Sadio Mané and Paris Saint-Germain superstar Achraf Hakimi.

The towel (the weirdest part)

The less supernatural explanation is that the towel helps keep the goalkeeper's gloves dry. But, accusations of witchcraft, aka 'juju', have been flying — and that is not outside the norm from African teams.

Apparently, Senegal (who won the cup) was prepared for this (Morocco did this in the semi-finals against Nigeria) and purposely stationed the second-string goalkeeper by the goal to stop the Moroccan ball boys from stealing the goalkeeper's towel lol. This resulted in a lot of physical comedy over the course of the game (second slide gif and below).

More videos of fighting over the towel lol

The players have since been exchanging a few taunting SM posts about towels (shown)…

The cheating accusations

During the final, Senegal's players walked off the pitch after a VAR call gave Morocco a late-game penalty, with player Ibrahim Mbaye (who is only 17!!!) Snapshatting shade about match officials (shown) while in the dressing room while refusing to play. This came after fans had previously stormed the pitch (also shown) earlier in the game, also over a contentious penalty call.

Senegal were criticised by the FIFA president for walking off and are set to be sanctioned by the Confederation of African Football (with Morocco also seeking legal action).

There are also accusations that match officials' calls favoured the host team, Morocco, throughout the tournament. According to my husband (lol), someone on SM tallied up the yellow cards and found that Morocco received 250% fewer yellow cards in the first halves of games than the other teams in the tournament. <needs citation>

The press conference

It was reported that "Senegal head coach Thiaw was unable to attend his post-match press conference due to ongoing clashes in the media center." Apparently, Moroccan journalists were booing him and arguing with Senegalese journalists so loudly that security couldn't control the room. So Thiaw walked out.