How much does it cost to win the Africa Cup of Nations? Senegal may now be learning the full price, having received the verdict regarding both their and defeated finalists Morocco's actions during the final earlier this month.
The CAF ruling arrived quietly, almost furtively, in the early hours of Thursday morning, long after the commotion and furore of Rabat had faded. The timing, at 2am, suggested that even they too were ashamed to revisit a night that will live in infamy. Shame prefers the cover of darkness, after all.
Senegal prevailed in a final that descended into chaos; compelling, confused, controversial. Setting aside the continent's litany of stadium tragedies that have resulted in loss of life, this may well be the most horrendous, shocking and damaging incident in the history of African football.
There were fires to extinguished everywhere across over 17 minutes of stoppage time, with the referee's decisions igniting fury, violence flaring between Senegal supporters and Moroccan authorities, the Teranga Lions' walk-off, and the clashes between players and head coaches overshadowing everything that had gone before it in the tournament.
The punishments are as follows:
• Senegal coach Pape Thiaw suspended for five games and fined $100k for "unsporting conduct"
• Senegal's federation fined $615k due to the behaviour of fans and players
• Iliman Ndiaye and Ismaïla Sarr suspended for two matches
• Morocco's football association fined $315k for the conduct of ball boys, players and staff, as well as the use of lasers by supporters
• Achraf Hakimi banned for two matches, one suspended for a year
• Saibari suspended for three matches, fined $100k
It's worth noting that the suspensions apply only to CAF matches, so FIFA World Cup participation is untouched, with the suspensions expected to take place quietly during the AFCON qualifying matches set to take place between September and November.
All that's without mentioning the towel tantrums, as petty as it was surreal, as Moroccan ball boys, stadium security and the petulant Ismael Saibari tried to steal Édouard Mendy's towel.
They tried wresting it away, and wrestling with back-up keeper Yehvann Diouf, in scenes that were unbefitting of children's football, unbecoming of Sunday league, utterly obscene in a major continental final.
That towel became a symbol that shaped much of what followed; of Senegalese dignity and defiance, and Moroccan pettiness and disregard for the spirit of the sport.
Then there was Brahim Díaz's pitiful panenka, a moment where he stood -- alone -- in that choking corridor between national hero for eternity and pariah for the rest of his days, and chose the latter, eyes open, deflating a nation, extending the 50-year wait for continental glory.
A whirlpool of conspiracies poured into the silence of a haunted home crowd in Rabat; was his miss the result of a gentleman's agreement, a whispered accord, royal pressure? This was the court of theatre and politics, no longer of sport and athleticism.
Morocco's Ismael Saibari looks back on his part in attempting to steal the towel of Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy in the AFCON final.
As Thiaw reflects on the punishment -- though we don't know how the financial sanction will impact him personally, given that it reportedly represents a hefty five months of salary -- he may well conclude that the exchange was fair.
He's only the second ever coach to win the Nations Cup with Senegal, and writing history always comes at a cost, after all. Would you sacrifice five months' salary to win the AFCON? To ensure your place as one of your country's all-time sporting icons, and go down in history in the eyes of your people for pulling off a victory that is being framed in Senegal as a genuine David-vs-Goliath triumph on hostile ground?
Titles help to ease through forgiveness, and already, in the hours after the sanctions were announced, Senegalese supporters had already launched community-led fundraisers to pay coach Thiaw's fine.
Thiaw acknowledged, openly, after the match that his decision to tell his players to leave the field was motivated purely by a desire to protest the referee's call to annul the Senegalese goal scored by Sarr, before awarding a penalty after VAR spotted El Hadji Malick Diouf hauling down Diaz in the box.
He directly admitted to attempting to hijack the match because of his disagreement with the referee's decision.
Of course, his choice must be considered emotionally in the context of the tournament and the sentiment that Morocco had had the deck stacked in their favour and were benefiting from favourable treatment/leniency.
In disciplinary terms, however, he cited neither fear nor safety, but injustice... he sought to ambush the final because he disagreed with the officiating. Had he suggested that he was protecting his staff and players because of the mounting hostility and a potential safety threat, perhaps there would have been mercy.
However, his words laid his motivations bear and left him exposed to sturdy sanctions.
"I simply tried to protect my players from injustice," he posted on Instagram. "What some will see as a violation of the rules is nothing more than an emotional reaction to the bias of the situation."
If, over the last weeks, Thiaw has been fretting about whether his AFCON final antics would come back to haunt him, potentially costing him the chance to lead his team out against France in their World Cup opener on June 16, or whether the Teranga Lions would be stripped of their title, he needn't have worried.
But emotion does not eradicate consequence. The manager's behaviour contributed to further inflaming the altercations and physical conflict between Senegal supporters and the Moroccan stadium volunteers; one of the local stewards was stretched off, and while rumours of his death last week proved to be fake news, he is understood to have sustained a significant injury to his face.
Given the objects being hurled towards the pitch from the stands, given the tussling between the Senegal supporters and the riot police, it's fortunate that the night ended without tragedy.
Thiaw's behaviour did not instigate these clashes, but it did risk enflaming an already volcanic situation; he cannot be held accountable for things that did not occur, there ought to have been profound recognition that his behaviour contributed to an incident that placed human safety at risk.
More broadly, it's one thing to bring the game into disrepute, but the scale and significance of this particular fixture ought to have also had some bearing on CAF's evaluation.
This was the showpiece match of the continent's flagship event, at a time when the existential future of the Nations Cup is being openly questioned, when African football is desperate to attract greater investment from within the continent and beyond.
Does a five-match ban adequately reflect this damage?
We have Sadio Mané to thank, at least in part, for the whole fiasco not being called off there and then, potentially undermining the tournament even further. That it was even on the cards must not be overlooked.
For that to be at stake, and for the head coach to receive a five-match ban, and still be allowed to represent a CAF nation at the World Cup, feels like the severity of his actions, the consequences and the potential consequences have not accurately been taken into account.
He's only banned for one match more than Algeria rightback Rafik Belghali after he confronted the match officials following the Fennecs' quarterfinal elimination by Nigeria.
Belghali's haranguing behaviour wasn't pretty, but Thiaw's attempted sabotage of the final was an offence of a different magnitude altogether.
Sam Ogunleye spoke with Morocco and Senegal fans after the 2025 AFCON final.
Yet this is not a simple narrative to unpick. Ultimately, while the smirking Thiaw can and will be cast as the villain of the piece in some quarters, elsewhere he will be remembered as a hero.
Here is a man who travelled to the Moroccan capital, refused to submit to Morocco's supposed gamesmanship, defied alleged favouritism, and pulled off the ultimate heist: suspend the play, destabilise Diaz, escape south with the trophy.
Morocco, seen by many outside North Africa, as being determined to harness every organ of power to secure the title on home soil, regardless of the injustice entailed, were ultimately outsmarted, outmanoeuvred, out-swindled by Thiaw's Robin Hood. Five matches is a small price to pay.
Will CAF's sanctions truly dissuaded future walk-offs should teams feel aggrieved at the decision-making of VAR? Will they preserve and safeguard the AFCON's reputation? Will a $315k fine dissuade future hosts from abandoning sporting ideals -- or attempting to steal a goalkeeper's towel -- in pursuit of glory?
"The stakes in football shouldn't lead us to do certain things, this Sunday should belong to all of Africa," Thiaw told ESPN, with some portentous words, ahead of the final.
"This was a competition that no one used to watch, but now it has an elevated status, we shouldn't destroy that."
Africa watched, Africa remembers, and now -- in dollars, reputations, and suspensions -- Africa counts the cost.