CAF sanctions Egypt, Morocco after AFCON quarter-final ‘fight’

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has suspended several Egyptian and Moroccan players and dished out fines after their Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final ended in a “fight”.

The sanctions fell Wednesday, on the eve of Egypt’s date with hosts Cameroon in the semi-finals after a locker room brawl following Sunday’s 2-1 win against Morocco.

The seven-time winners will be missing assistant coach Rogerio De Sa, and left back Marwan Daoud for the game in Yaounde.

The pair picked up match suspensions starting Wednesday, CAF said.

Trouble began after “altercations between Egypt assistant coach Rogerio Paulo Dos Santos Cesar De Sa and the President of the Moroccan FA Mr. Fouzi Lekjaa,” CAF said in a statement from their Cairo HQ.

“A general fight followed in which Morocco player Sofiane Boufal and Egypt player Marwan Mostafa Daoud were identified,” the CAF said. 

Daoud’s suspension came due to “his violent conduct” while Rogerio De Sa’s was because of “using an obscene gesture”.

CAF also suspended Moroccan players Soufian Chakla and Soufiane Boufal for “violent behaviour”. That rules the pair out of Morocco’s World Cup play-off game against the Democratic Republic of Congo in March. 

The confederation imposed a fine of $10,000 on the Moroccan Federation and $25,000 on the Egyptian Football Association.

It also imposed an additional $100,000 fine ($50,000 suspended) on Egypt for breaching the Cup of Nations’ media protocols and directives when failing to honour their pre-match press conference commitment.