Former Senegal footballer Mamadou Niang has complained about the antics of Moroccan fans during their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations matches against Nigeria and Senegal.
He said the behavior was unfair and not in line with sportsmanship.
This was after video highlights from the Africa Cup of Nations final showed Moroccan players taking towels meant to keep Édouard Mendy’s face and gloves dry during the light rain, and they often threw the towels into the stands.
The incidents seemed planned ahead of time, just like the situation in the semifinal against Nigeria, where goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali was treated the same way.
On more than one occasion, the Super Eagles’ goalkeeper had to go back to his bench to get new towels because the ones he had were taken away from him.
Niang asked the people organizing the tournament to be responsible for making sure fair play is kept, saying that things like this should never happen when the match officials are in charge.
Speaking as a pundit on Canal+, Niang said, “We saw what happened against Nigeria, where the Nigerian goalkeeper, (Nwabali) had to keep going to the bench to get a towel to dry his gloves and his face.
“And then it happened again several times. They took Édouard [Mendy’s) towel, maybe five or six times.
“Édouard needed to get towels because it began raining during extra time; this made it hard to see, and his gloves were really wet.
“The Morocco players should not stop a Senegalese player from giving the towel to his goalkeeper. A lot of unusual things happened, and the organizers are to blame for the actions.
Morocco made it to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final by winning a penalty shootout against the Super Eagles with a score of 4-2.
Despite Nwabali saving Hamza Igamane’s penalty kick, Morocco still won the match as Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi wasted their spot kicks.
