Regragui calls Senegal coach Thiaw disgraceful after AFCON chaos after Senegal players leave pitch in protest.
Morocco’s Regragui calls Thiaw ‘shameful’ after Afcon final descends into chaos.
After Morocco lost the Africa Cup of Nations in what he called “a final with a Hitchcockian script,” head coach Walid Regragui of Morocco accused Senegal’s Pape Thiaw of embarrassing African football. Senegal’s players protested by leaving the ground after the video assistance referee gave his team a penalty after Senegal’s goal was disallowed in stoppage time. Senegal won in extra time after Brahim Díaz missed the penalty with a duffed Panenka when they came back.
“The image we’ve given of Africa is shameful. A coach who asks his players to leave the field … What Pape did does not honour Africa,” Regragui said. “He had already started in the [pre-match] press conference. He wasn’t classy. But he is a champion, so he can say whatever he wants. We stopped the match in the eyes of the world for 10 minutes. That didn’t help Brahim. That doesn’t excuse Brahim for the way he hit the penalty. He hit it like that and we have to accept it. We were one minute from being African champions. That’s football. It’s often cruel. We missed what for some was the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Pape Gueye, who scored the winner, spoke of his “pride” in victory. “What we felt was injustice. There had been a foul for us and the referee chose not to look at the VAR,” he said, trying to explain the walk-off. “We were frustrated, but Sadio [Mané] told us to come back on the pitch to remobilise us. We all saw what happened at the end. We took the decision to come back on the pitch to give everything – which we did.”
Despite a 26-game winning streak since guiding Morocco to the World Cup semifinals, Regragui has faced harsh criticism, with several reporters in the post-match news conference urging him to step down.
The Moroccan press staged a mass walkout after Thiaw entered the press conference room to a mixture of applause and jeers. Arguments between Senegalese and Moroccan journalists delayed the news session for a few minutes. As the altercations persisted and spilt onto the stage, Thiaw himself departed. Sadly, one CAF official took away the small plane that represented one of the sponsors while another declared the meeting to be finished. It was an appropriately tumultuous way to cap off a chaotic evening.