Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye speak out after Afcon title overturn

They won it fairly. If they want to take it off them, make them play it again, but with a different ref.

But really speaking they should keep the trophy, which they earned.

I’m starting to dislike the way football is run, with the Chelsea slap on the wrist and now this ridiculous decision.

From ball boys hiding towels and dragging the reserve goalkeeper around by his ankles to laser pointers being aimed at players to a team downing tools for 20 minutes because they don't like the fact the other team got awarded a penalty, the whole thing was a farce.

When the Senegal coach called his players off, they should have told the team to get the fuck back on or forfeit the game. Sad for our boys obviously but alongside the Chelsea news and Man City's endless PSR case football's the winner!

Man City & Chelsea would definitely be relegated!!!!

Isn't that what actually happened?
It seems strange that they allowed the game to resume and then rule it forfeited months later.

If they were told they could either stay off the pitch and forfeit the game, or get back out and it would continue, then it shouldn't be possible to reverse that decision later.

I'm not specifically supporting the Senegalese team, just saying a binding agreement should have been approved at the time or the game should have been abandoned and the statutory rules applied.

What would happen if, every time the manager or players didn't agree with a decision, they walked off the pitch?

Chelsea… now this. Tournament was won in January? Awarded to Morocco in mid March.

Man City will be the next to slither away like the snakes they really are.
Still lower than a snake’s belly.

I feel sorry for our 2 players. Behaviour aside on the night, which was a bit crazy.

I have no idea why, but it's pretty standard across the world.

The Afcon authorities will only be an afterthought on their sheer incompetence from this fiasco.

To me, it sounded as though the coach threw his toys out of the pram and the tournament organisers or ref didn't know what to do.

Whether Senegal won or not, there was always going to be an asterisk next to the result as the game descended into a farce.

Is this the way forward? We already have time added on to time added on with games regularly running beyond 100 minutes because of VAR.

How long do we wait until it happens again? Not that long I bet.

Who awarded Morocco the 2030 World Cup along with Spain and Portugal? Enough said.

Fuck Fifa.

Article 82 states that if a team refuses to play or leaves the field before the end of regulation time without the referee's authorisation, it will be considered the loser and eliminated from the competition.

Article 84: Any team violating Article 84 will be eliminated from the tournament and will lose the match 3-0

The rules were applied. Senegal broke them. Correct decision.

Surely there is no one who believes that the Senegalese team were not told 'to get the fuck back on or forfeit the game'.

Here's the deal. If Chelsea get a 93rd minute penalty on Saturday and we do not agree with it, we should follow the example of the truly noble Senegalese and walk off the pitch.

They knew the rules and they broke them.

He also awarded Qatar the World Cup.

Two guesses what country he lives in now.

Or am I not understanding yet another ace ToffeeWeb conspiracy theory?

But might as well have a pop at all the governing bodies while we're at it. :)

The tournament organisers were even worse, because they must have surely warned the Senegal players to get the fuck back on the field otherwise they would forfeit the game, the dirty lying bastards!

Didn't the fecking cheating twat of a referee have a Fifa badge on his shirt and the linesman/woman too, come to think of it. Nailed on conclusive evidence.

I can sniff a conspiracy, me. The ref also has a courtesy flat along North Wharf Road.

It's like in Italy, Inter were awarded titles after every other big club was found to have bribed referees. But nonetheless Juve fans remember the games, had their celebrations and have those memories.

I would say what Senegal did was wrong but they're moral victors if no longer on paper victors because the Moroccan behaviour was utterly outrageous, ball boys etc.

Kieran, I think that some of my reaction is because of posters on here who appear to support Senegal on this through thick and thin despite clearly stated rules and shite behaviour all round. Senegal did behave shockingly.

We even have a poster on here who says that he reffed for ages but posted that Gueye and Illy ought to get guards of honour at Finch Farm, despite both of them undermining the ref's authority.

Honestly, I would not have blinked an eyelid if the Afcon authorities had made the decision to not award the trophy this time round because of appalling behaviour by everyone concerned, including them.

Did you get tickets, Kieran, for World Cup matches in Kansas City?

"Surely there is no one who believes that the Senegalese team were not told 'to get the fuck back on or forfeit the game'."

If you believe that then surely you can't agree with the decision to recind the title. If they were given that choice by the authorities, then those authorities tacitly approved the result.

By giving them a choice to forfeit or play on, the organisers are tacitly approving whatever action is taken. So the result is valid.

It’s a VAR official’s wet dream.

Point 5.2 of the makes it clear “that the decisions of a referee regarding facts connected with play, including whether or not a goal is scored and the result of the match, are final”.

Once the referee took the decision to resume play, the result could only be determined on the field of play and not in the court of football justice.

But the appeals committee have got form for this – they did the exact opposite a few years ago when a referee abandoned a CAF Champions League game when one team left the field for an hour and awarded the game to the other team.

The Appeals committee overturned that, it went to the court of arbitration for sport (CAS) who ruled they couldn't overturn the referee's decision.

So hang on to your medals, Illy and Idrissa.

I was in Morocco for Afcon and watched the Round of 16 and quarter-final in Marrakesh. If you do watch the final, the penalty decision was correct and, even if it was not, you should not walk off the pitch because the decision did not go your way. Where would football be if this happened all the time? We would never get a match finished.

The Senegalese manager is to blame, and the players for following him like lemmings. In my opinion, the referee should not have allowed them back on the field after a 16-minute delay.

Imagine having to take a penalty with your first touch the ball. This was nothing but cheating by the Senegalese manager, possibly pre-planned.

They should have said, hey, you're our brothers and we love you, and we've been through thick and thin together, and yes, you just won the biggest honor of your lives with half the world watching and sent your nation into paroxysms of joy, but we're not gonna welcome you back to training with a guard of honor because you walked off the pitch behind your manager and we do have to stand up for the referee in that game.

Sorry, boys, now fuck off.

And surely now with the reversal of the outcome, the players will reverse the guard of honor and make Ili and Gana walk through two lines of teammates with their backs turned. It's only right.

(eye roll)

As for the Senegalese manager, I did say possibly pre-planned. I would not know, I doubt even the Senegalese players would. Pre-planned or not, the Senegalese manager just lost the plot.

Would you expect your kid to stay around and restart the match, by possibly taking the penalty with his first touch?

Had this ref decided to call the game when Senegal walked off, it would have been up to the top Afcon official on-site to declare the game suspended or forfeited.

The ref's decision to allow the game to resume may have been the only call he got right all day (may have prevented 67k fans from rioting).

I think taking a penalty to win the game in the last minute of any cup final, at any level, would be nerve-racking, so those extra 16 minutes would definitely have put a lot of added pressure on the kid who was having to take the penalty.

My own view is that the Senegal team didn't walk off to put more pressure on the player, though, but more because they were disgusted at what definitely appeared to be the very cynical actions of the referee.

And this leads me onto this: nice segway:

Mr Devlin @28: quoting IFAB 5:2 'The decisions of a referee regarding facts connected with play, including whether or not a goal is scored and the result of the match, are final.'

Even a snail or a skunk would understand that this only applies to the actual match.

I wonder why you did not quote the next sentence, PD? Just to remind you:

'The decisions of the referee, and all other match officials, must always be respected.'

I'll pass that last one onto MG as well.

I should have been more precise: the 90+ minutes of the match.

I am fed up of the bullshit that is spouted. I have watched this match both on beIN Sports TV and Channel 4, the stance that the two media outlets take is completely different, I wonder why?

We have a difference of opinion, but only one of us had a pre-conceived view. I might be wrong about this, but that's how I read your initial comment about the Senegalese coach.

I just can't imagine a manager thinking before the game that, if the opposition get a penalty in the last minute, he was going to drag his players off the pitch.

But using my own eyes, I have watched countless games of football, where it has definitely looked like the referee is favouring one of the teams.

Without going all political, but by using another of our most important features, I think anyone who uses their ears properly will understand that the right are currently as bad as the left, especially the far right and the far left, and it's currently taking us to a very dangerous place.

And Alex, I'm lefter than a left-footed left-back who plays for Leftborough and reads Karl Marx but I don't see what the “right wing media” has to do with this?

What Senegal did was stupid and at the time I thought they had some brass neck even celebrating on the pitch let alone parades and guards of honour.

I'm only surprised it's taken so long to overturn the result.
And to be clear, I would've been absolutely delighted had Senegal won it in “normal”circumstances... and I do have sympathy for them re the referee's shocking decisions in that game... but they forfeited the game, comrade!

No doubt at all Morocco were supposed to win this competition. The final group game, the ref gave a handball in the box against them but awarded a foul after VAR intervened, which totally soured it for me, it was obvious corruption.

The semi-final with ball boys instructed to remove towels from the goalie and even Hakimi throwing them into the crowd.

The final had the sub goalie and ball boys tussling over towels for Senegal. Senegal had no security in the build-up to the final and alleged food poisoning...

Then the final itself was as bent a performance from a ref as you could wish to see.

I do not blame the Senegal coach for taking his players off.

At that point the ref should have abandoned the game and awarded Morocco the cup but he didn't so eventually they returned and Diaz tried the chipped pen which failed miserably.

Senegal got the deserved winner with a great pure strike.

The Afcon federation awarding Morocco the cup 2 months after the event isn't credible and only casts more doubt over the controlling body.

Football is being run by the most corrupt people on the planet. From Fifa and the peace award to a power crazed looney... to Masters in the Premier League with his own rule book.

The more money in the game, the more corrupt it is becoming.

My comments regarding right wing media, I will keep it to football, are aimed at mainly the commentators' sidekicks but also the commentators themselves.

I have stopped listening to them, I start watching a match to which I am completely neutral on. But after 10 minutes, I find I am supporting the opposite team that the commentator and his sidekick have decided or been told to support.

One thing you know for sure is, if a so-called Top 6 side is playing, it will be them. As for the referee, I thought he had a good game, well... until he let the Senegalese players back on to the pitch. This may have been out of his control.

Curious that… you seem to be busy on other threads but not this one.

Is this action distinctively known to be 'right wing', so that I can be happy to be left wing if I have not 'decided or been told to support' one team?

And, by the way, who are these powerful mysterious lurking figures who tell a commentator who to support?

I have several normally intelligent and usually grounded friends who have turned into “swivel-eyed loons” because they haven't fact checked the right-wing media shite we are fed these days but I still don't see how this debacle is down to them? (The right wing media that is, not my gullible friends.)

The idea that Tarks and Seamus and the rest of the guys should have waved off the tribute over the walk-off just struck me as too bizarre not to have a bit of sarcastic fun with.

Sorry if it came off confusing. I forget that irony usually doesn't come over well online.

Paul #37, a "segway" is a scooter. Try "segue" next time.

I am far from being the only one who believes that the GOH was wrong.The man you call 'Murph' is another. And there are plenty more. You think it's 'odd'. Fine, but equally many do not and not one of them would put it as you try to do as disrespecting the referee. It was far more than that. Got that now?

The outcome is good for the game and for all of us who believe in the authority of referees.

Hmmmm, 'brothers'? You clearly are not a good brother with your brother referee, although, I suppose, he is far higher on the ref. pecking order than your good self.

So, you've now posted the same thing twice on this thread. It's time now to deal with reasonable questions that have been addressed to you but let's not hold our breath, shall we?

You may be the moderator or the editor or whatever you want to call it of this space, but that does NOT give you the right to change other people's copy and insert words as you wish.

I did not use the word FUCK in post #31. I used the initial F. You changed it.

Change it the fuck back.

You have, however, neglected to ask an actual question amidst all the blather. Please pose one and I will hasten to enlighten you. I promise.

I'm interested Mr. Gaynes as you have mentioned it so often and again today, why as a ref who seems to know and follow the rules (and indeed as here today uses that experience to make a point) you would want a parade of honour for a team what walked off the pitch because they did not agree with the ref's decision?

The key word here FYI for next time is 'why'? Just so you know for the future, 'why' inevitably leads to a question, but I don't think that it's my fault that you did not spot that.

And. this is really very clear.

IFAB 5:2 - 'The decisions of the referee, and all other match officials, must always be respected'.

I'll pass that last one onto MG as well.

I'm sorry did you need a question mark?

OK. What do you feel MG about this quote from the IFAB rule book - on top of those supplied elsewhere from AFCON's rules - as a ref of some sort who defends the actions of a walk-off team who completely failed to respect the referee?

Know what seems odd about your GOH? Not those of us who think it was wrong, but a ref of some sort who again and again reminds us all of that who condones the Senegal walk-off and wants to celebrate with what now clearly looks like an embarrassing twat of a GOH.

Oh, and there were points in my last that you failed to address.

I trust that you have the groovy - note how I thoughtfully put that in your language man - 'Avoidance' by Babysmoove on your playlist.

An early contender for the TW "line of the weekend" award.

I've been guilty of this, to be fair.

I suppose as team mates, in the interest of changing room camaraderie, most of the players would have given them “yay woos, go Senegals” (I bet Aznou didn't!)

Shame there's no scousers in the squad (are there, btw?) as I'm sure they would be giving them some acerbic stick about asterisks and such. I bet Michael Keane gives Idrissa some stick now!

I believe it's now going to the courts so there may be another twist yet but in my opinion they forfeited the win when they walked off the pitch. Not sure if the ref could've made that decision but the authorities at the game had plenty of time before the players skulked back on the pitch to make that call.

The ref is not able to rule on a forfeit, agree with you that the clown Senegalese forfeited the match and that the 'authorities' at the game did a shite job.

Travelling up today for the match?

The Hotel (The Royal) is apparently facing those statues on the beach (Joe Gormley?) and it's forecast a nice day so hopefully the match won't spoil it!

Unless I'm lucky with a derby ticket (slim chance), this will be my last home game this season, so a good win would be very welcome!

Who are the scousers in the squad? I couldn't think of any but I admit I'm not well up on the youth players. I know Garner is from the Wirral but that's not Scouse, is it?

Ooo, just thought of one as I write – Harrison Armstrong's a local lad isn't he? COYB

You can't see Gormley's stuff from the Royal mate -- 10 minutes walk north up the prom -- but the Royal is nice with a decent restaurant.

Mark, South Road, the long road to the beach with the Royal bottom left is dodgy mate. However, a few minutes from the Royal is one of the best boozers in North Liverpool, The Volunteer Canteen. Top boozer mate. Make sure to go.

I'm jealous.

And the Crow's Nest at the top of Victoria Road, Crosby where I bought my first ever pint aged 16. On the left is Manor Road, where I grew up.

It has tried hard to go bistro and the Trap & Hatch and the real ale place Stamps Too are deffo worth a visit, mate. But the Volly Canteen is head and shoulders above 'em.

It's really difficult to do, because it is everywhere. We as humans need to be entertained, or else we get bored.

If I watch or listen to it, I get angry at the bullshit that is spoken, so I have had to stop watching the news, which I have done so all my life.

Advice, answer the questions someone puts to you before spouting again your very weird stuff.

Alex, I think we'd get along mate -- I despise the tabloid press and the way they manipulate the voters with sensationalist and populist garbage.

As I said, I encourage everyone to fact check media claims before joining a bandwagon.

Best centre-foward from the USA ever, Donald.

He is almost as good a footballer as he is a golfer. :-)

Would it surprise you if, as the World Cup starts, Donald tells the press of his abilities as a college footballer? He's the best at everything else, so why not?

I much prefer going to South Road than I do town nowadays, Paul, because it's much easier to park the car and the place has got some great little restaurants.

I'm looking forward to visiting South Road et al now.

I just hope the match doesn't spoil a grand day out!

I know you prefer letting the days go by, Mark, but 3 points tonight and everyone will be dancing -- possibly even in the street!

Re St Helens, you're wrong there, mate. I haven't lived there since I was 24 and I visit as seldom as possible and only out of familial dutiful son ties.

The part I was brought up in, Sutton Oak (Junction) is an absolute shithole and where once people gave friendly greetings. I now get suspicious looks, dirty looks and growls. It's very sad. Thatcher's legacy, mate!

Two collieries shut down. The town never recovered.

Oops - there I go again!! Time to focus - UTFT!
Give us a call if you're in the Waterloo area later!

She destroyed many communities through spite mate.

Didn't the referee and all other match officials decide that the game should carry on?

I'm at the Royal now - cracking place this - a real gem.
Setting off to find the “Volly” now.

Don't the FA rules say that the decision of the referee is final?

Nice little area down that way.

Which is why the Appeals Committee breached the laws of the game with their decision. As previously confirmed by CAS in Switzerland, who have the final say.

Oooookay.

My deepest apologies for having overlooked such profound inquiries.

To the best of my fuzzy recollection – and the intervening two months included my lengthy second honeymoon, so I have been rather occupied – I did not endorse the walk off. I merely reported it.

And yes, I do believe that when one's beloved teammates return from having achieved the greatest success of their lives, a guard of honor is both appropriate and predictable.

I breathlessly await your next impactful queries. I live only to answer them.

Football rules are based on precedent, and there was no precedent for what was happening in that moment. To the best of my knowledge no major match has ever been declared a forfeit because the players walked off in protest of a ref's call. This is the first time. No way the referee or the on-scene officials were going to make that decision in the moment. And it took even CAF two months to decide.

Didn't it happen in a World Cup back in the 70s or 80s with one of the Arab countries? I have a vague memory of seeing a photo of some emir in flowing robes leading the team off the field.

"Emir Aminute" was the guys name.