CAF Strips Senegal of Afcon Title: Historic Cases When Championships Were Taken Away

The AFCON 2025 Final on January 18th is not over. The scandal continues far away from the pitch.

Two months later, on March 17th, CAF strips the title from Senegal national football team, ruling that Senegal were “declared to have forfeited” the final, citing Articles 82 and 84 of the AFCON regulations.

The Senegalese Football will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, a process that would typically take a year to deliver a verdict.

And while we wait for a verdict, the question is simple: Has this happened before?

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has stripped titles so frequently it's practically an institution of its own.

USC football (2004 BCS national title)

The BCS stripped the USC Trojans football of the 2004 BCS title and declared there would be no winner.

The cause was Reggie Bush accepting improper benefits.

Louisville basketball (2013 NCAA title)

Louisville Cardinals men's basketball became the first Division I basketball program of either sex forced to vacate a national title, stemming from a sex scandal involving staff members arranging entertainment for players and recruits.

Both runner-up finishes in 1992 and 1993 were vacated because of a wide-ranging improper-benefits scandal involving the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball program.

The NCAA vacated Syracuse's victory when they determined that star player Paul Gait was ineligible due to having a car loan co-signed by the coach's wife while playing for Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse.

In October 2020, the NCAA stripped the 2017 Atlantic 10 Conference championship from the UMass Minutewomen tennis team over the improper reimbursement of a $252 phone bill, leading to public outcry.

Lance Armstrong lost seven victories in the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005.

Besides Lance, both Floyd Landis (2006) and Alberto Contador (2010, 2011) were also stripped for doping.

In 1967, then-undefeated world champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title and denied a boxing license for three years over his refusal to be drafted into the U.S. army.

This makes it the most politically charged stripping in sports history, with many arguing it was a profound injustice.

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