The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will hold its first hearing on the dispute between Senegal and Morocco over the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final on Thursday, 8 October, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The hearing will take place in person at the CAS headquarters from 09:30 local time and will be held behind closed doors because none of the parties requested a public session.
Representatives of the Senegalese and Moroccan football federations will attend the hearing in Lausanne, while the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will be represented by its lawyer.
The hearing is expected to continue until the afternoon, after which the three-member arbitration panel will begin considering the case.
CAS has made clear that no ruling will be delivered on the day of the hearing. The panel will deliberate after the session, but the court has not specified when its final decision will be announced.
The panel hearing the case consists of Gerald Simon of France, who will serve as president, alongside Italy’s Luigi Fumagalli and Germany’s Ulrich Haas.
The parties have also agreed that the proceedings will be conducted in French.
The case stems from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final and the decision that followed the match. The Senegalese Football Federation registered its appeal with CAS on 25 March 2026, challenging the decision taken by CAF.
CAF had declared Senegal’s national team, the Lions of Teranga, the loser of the final by withdrawal and awarded the title to Morocco with a 3-0 scoreline.
Senegal’s appeal seeks to overturn that decision and asks CAS to declare the Senegalese Football Federation the winner of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
CAS said the parties did not reach an agreement to use an expedited procedure. The case will therefore be heard under the court’s normal timetable and according to its established rules.
The court had previously announced on 24 July that the first hearing in the case would take place in October, providing the initial formal timetable for the legal challenge surrounding the final.
The upcoming hearing will not be conducted by video conference. CAS confirmed that the proceedings will be held physically at its headquarters in Lausanne, with the relevant representatives attending in person.
The court has also issued a warning over information being circulated about the case. It said misinformation concerning the proceedings had appeared and was subsequently reported by media organisations.
CAS stressed that information about the case should be considered official only when it is released through the court’s own channels. Any announcement concerning the proceedings or the eventual decision will be published on the CAS website.
For now, the 8 October hearing will mark the next formal stage in Senegal’s challenge against the CAF decision, but the outcome of the case will not be known immediately after the session.
