3 football teams that have had their titles stripped from them

In the annals of international football, certain moments redefine what we understand as the finality of sporting competition. On 17 March 2026, such a moment arrived, and with it, a ruling that had no direct precedent in the history of a major international tournament.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that Senegal had been stripped of their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title, and the trophy was awarded to Morocco. CAF's Appeals Board overturned Senegal's 1-0 extra-time win in the January 18 final in Rabat, instead awarding a 3-0 default victory to the hosts, marking the first AFCON title for Morocco since 1976, while Senegal were denied what would have been their second crown.

This marked the first time that a global football tournament winner has been decided retrospectively by a governing body — a distinction that sets this ruling apart from all that came before it.

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To understand the ruling, one must return to the chaos of that January night in Rabat. During the AFCON 2025 final at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Morocco were awarded a controversial penalty by Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala, who adjudged that Brahim Diaz was fouled in the box. Moments earlier, Senegal had a goal ruled out for a foul by Abdoulaye Seck, despite replays showing minimal contact on Achraf Hakimi.

The Senegalese players, led by head coach Pape Thiaw, stormed off the pitch, leading to a 14-minute delay. Talisman Sadio Mané remained on the touchline before eventually retrieving his team. After the players returned and Brahim Diaz missed the penalty — attempting a Panenka that was easily saved — the game went to extra time, where Pape Gueye scored to give Senegal a 1-0 victory on the night.

The result, however, would not stand.

CAF cited Article 82 of the tournament regulations, which states that "if, for any reason whatsoever, a team withdraws from the competition or does not report for a match, or refuses to play or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the authorisation of the referee, it shall be considered a loser and shall be eliminated for good from the current competition."

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The sanction was both immediate and significant: Senegal were deemed to have forfeited the final, with the match officially recorded as a 3–0 victory in favour of Morocco, thereby handing them the continental title.

The CAF Appeals Board also confirmed a $100,000 fine for the Moroccan federation after officials were hounded during a VAR review, while fines for laser use by the home crowd were reduced to $10,000, and a separate fine involving ball boys was halved to $50,000—underscoring that Morocco did not emerge entirely blameless from the chaos. Nonetheless, the appeal was upheld and the title transferred.

While unprecedented at the level of a major international final, the stripping of football titles has a painful and turbulent history across the club game. Senegal now joins a grim but notable list.

The most seismic title-stripping scandal in club football history remains the Calciopoli affair. The scandal centred on the manipulation of referee appointments to favour certain clubs during the 2004–05 and 2005–06 Serie A seasons. Uncovered in May 2006 through telephone wiretaps, it implicated league champions Juventus, as well as Fiorentina, Lazio, AC Milan, and Reggina.

In July 2006, Juventus were stripped of the 2004–05 Serie A title, which was left unassigned, and demoted to last place in the 2005–06 Serie A table, with the title subsequently awarded to Inter Milan. They were also relegated to Serie B. AC Milan were docked 30 points, while Fiorentina and Lazio were banned from European competitions for a season and also had points deducted.

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To this day, Calciopoli remains controversial in Italy. Juventus fans argue the punishments were excessive, pointing to evidence that other clubs — particularly Inter — engaged in similar practices but escaped equivalent punishment. The club has never formally accepted the ruling and continues to count both titles in its unofficial historical record.

Marseille won both Ligue 1 and the UEFA Champions League in 1992–93 but were stripped of the former after being found guilty of match-fixing. Club president Bernard Tapie arranged to offer a 250,000 franc bribe to Valenciennes players to go easy on Marseille in a crucial late-season fixture. One of those players, Jacques Glassman, refused the bribe and reported it to the referee, ultimately unravelling the scheme.

Marseille were stripped of their French league title and demoted to the second division. Tapie was convicted and later began an eight-month prison sentence in 1997. Critically, Marseille were permitted to keep their Champions League trophy but were not allowed to defend it the following season. The Ligue 1 title itself went unattributed, with second-placed PSG declining to claim it.

The cases above, while dramatic, share a common thread: the punishment arose from deliberate corruption, administrative breaches, or cynical rule-breaking. The Senegal situation is markedly different. Their walk-off was undeniably a breach of regulations, but it was an act of protest, spontaneous, emotive, and driven by a sense of injustice felt in real time on the pitch.

Among the Senegalese players to lose their champion status are former Liverpool striker Sadio Mané, Everton pair Idrissa Gueye and Iliman Ndiaye, Chelsea's Mamadou Sarr, West Ham's El Hadji Malick Diouf, and Crystal Palace's Ismaila Sarr. These are players who returned to the pitch, completed the match in full, and won it only to have that victory erased two months later.

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Morocco, meanwhile, ended a 49-year wait for their second AFCON title under circumstances that will forever invite debate. The Moroccan federation's statement pointedly noted that its appeal was never intended to challenge sporting performance but solely to request the application of competition regulations.

Senegal's stripping of the 2025 AFCON title represents a genuinely new chapter in the sport's governance history. Previous cases involved off-field corruption or administrative failures. This one punishes a team for what happened during the match itself in a decision that overrode the authority of the referee, who allowed the game to continue and be completed.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino had, in the immediate aftermath of the final, condemned "some Senegal players" for the "unacceptable scenes". Yet the question of whether a forfeit rule designed to punish teams that abandon a match should apply to a team that returned to the pitch, resumed play, and won is one that legal and sporting bodies will be grappling with for years.

For now, history records Morocco as the 2025 AFCON champions. But history also records that they never won on the pitch and that the game's governing structures once again find themselves at the centre of a controversy that has done little to enhance the image of African football on the world stage.