Senegal coach Pape Thiaw admitted to broadcaster beIN Sports that he had erred in telling the players to walk off the pitch, reports thegazellenews.com
“After thinking about it, I realised that I shouldn’t have asked them to go off. I apologise for that,” Thiaw said.
“Sometimes you can react in the heat of the moment. Before that we scored a goal that was not given. But now we accept that referees do make mistakes and we apologise.”
However, Morocco coach Walid Regragui in his remarks, said he was worried by the damage done globally to African football by the chaotic final.
“The image we gave of African football was rather shameful. Having to stop the game for more than 10 minutes with the world watching is not very classy,” said Regragui.
The AFCON final between hosts Morocco and Senegal was disrupted late in normal time when referee Jean Jacques Mdala awarded Morocco a penalty following a VAR review for a challenge on Brahim Diaz, with the match level at 0-0.
In protest, most Senegal players walked off the pitch, while clashes broke out in the stands involving some Senegalese fans and Moroccan security personnel.
Meanwhile, the African football controlling body, the Confederation Of African Football (CAF) has confirmed that that disciplinary processes have commenced and that sanctions will follow once investigations are concluded.
