Morocco-Senegal was almost eight months ago, and we still do not know who won this African Cup of Nations final. Present on the Canal Football Club playeau, where he now works as a consultant, Walid Regragui deplored the slowness of this soap opera, which is now awaiting the CAS verdict. The former Morocco coach especially railed against the spectacle proposed, far from football.
“The big loser today is African football!”believes the former coach of the Atlas Lions. We had a grandiose final, with the two best teams in Africa over the last five-six years… We could have a party and show that African football had reached a milestone, with stadiums meeting European and extraordinary standards. And I put myself in the place of any person in the world: when you see what happened, all the negative flaws associated with African football, we demonstrated them during this final. We didn’t show a good picture. »
Morocco-Senegal, Regragui still angry
In his observation, and even if they mention wrongs on both sides, Regragui does not spare Senegal, evoking “an extraordinary action”. He refers to the decision of the Lions of Téranga to leave the field at the time of the penalty whistled against Brahim Diaz.
“I’m a little angry with the Senegalese coach, because we didn’t give a good image, deplores the Moroccan.
Win or not win, in the end, you made a decision that dirties African football. In this final, we proved the people who criticized us right. »
Regragui recalled that the Senegalese returned to the locker room in the middle of the match, some taking the same time “to snap” (in this case Ibrahim Mbaye). He also believes that, beyond the bad image sent back, this event could have disturbed his players. “If we want to debate sincerely, didn’t the fact that a team was out for 15 minutes change the behavior of Brahim Diaz when he went to take a penalty? When Kylian (Mbappé) misses his penalty against Morocco in the World Cup, because the referee stopped the game for 2 minutes, he himself says that he was wronged. »
