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Claim: Morocco national men’s football team captain Achraf Hakimi has rejected the 2025 AFCON trophy after the CAF Appeals Board overturned Senegal’s victory and awarded the title to Morocco.
Verdict: False. The viral quote attributed to Achraf Hakimi has no verifiable source. A search of the footballer’s official social media accounts reveals no such statement, and none of the outlets spreading the claim has provided evidence of where or when he made it.
Full Text
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final between Morocco and Senegal was one of the most controversial in the tournament’s history. Senegal won the match 1-0 in extra time, but their players had briefly walked off the pitch in protest following a disputed penalty awarded to Morocco deep in stoppage time. CAF later rejected a complaint by Morocco challenging the final outcome and imposed sanctions and fines on both countries and some players. Months later, on March 17, 2026, CAF’s Appeals Board ruled that Senegal’s brief walk-off during the 2025 African Cup of Nations final constituted a forfeiture under its competition regulations and therefore overturned Senegal’s victory on the day to a 3-0 win in Morocco’s favour.
Senegal’s football federation described the decision as a “travesty” and announced it would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport while the Moroccan Football Association said in a statement that the appeal was “solely to ensure the proper enforcement of competition regulations…” and said it will “issue a more comprehensive official statement in the coming days after a scheduled meeting of its governing bodies.”
Amidst global reactions from stakeholders, including former Ballon d’Or winner, George Weah, coaches Hugo Broos, and Claude Le Roy, a viral post on social media and on news websites claims Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi is unhappy with the Appeals Board’s decision and has decided to reject the AFCON trophy because his mum has told him to.
The posts claim Hakimi said:
“My mum told me to reject the Africa Cup of Nations trophy. I’m officially rejecting the trophy and hope my teammates do the same. We had a chance to win it, but we didn’t. That’s football; sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. Senegal beat us fairly and deserved the win. It will be unfair to ruin their joy after the hard work they put in. I respect the CAF decision, but I’m officially rejecting the trophy. I didn’t win the 2025 AFCON. Congratulations to Senegal once again.”
This has appeared on several sports portals and blogs, including GhanaWeb, Citi Sports Online, Ghana Soccer Net, and P.M. News Nigeria, among many other social media platforms such as this and this. The story attracted thousands of reactions and shares, quickly going viral across West Africa and the wider African football community.
Given the heated emotions surrounding the CAF ruling and the increasing prevalence of fabricated quotes attributed to public figures, DUBAWA decided to fact-check the claim.
Verification
To verify whether Achraf Hakimi made the statement attributed to him, DUBAWA searched his verified accounts on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), but found no post containing the alleged statement or any semblance of it. Similarly, multiple Google searches did not yield any record of Hakimi granting a recent public interview in which he mentioned rejecting the AFCON trophy.
DUBAWA searched for any press conference or official statement in which Hakimi is recorded as having made the alleged remarks, but found none. The majority of the outlets publishing the viral quote provided no link, no timestamp, or mentioned the specific platform on which the footballer is alleged to have made the statement. This is a fundamental red flag.
A few social media posts, such as this and this, mentioned Marca, a Spanish sports tabloid, as the source of the statement; however, a thorough search of Marca’s website for mentions of Hakimi did not yield any credible report linking him to his alleged rejection of the AFCON trophy.
Further, DUBAWA observed that some news portals that previously published the claim have begun deleting it. For instance, Vanguard Nigeria, which initially published the story, has taken it offline.
Tribuna, an Eastern European sports website, also published the viral claim earlier but has since taken it offline and published another article discrediting it.
In the new post, Tribuna noted that: “Despite the ongoing controversy surrounding the Africa Cup of Nations decision by the Confederation of African Football, no verified interviews, press conferences, or official posts support the claim…. [The quote] appears to have originated from unverified social media accounts. Its emotional tone and message of sportsmanship made it believable, helping it go viral quickly.”
On the day the CAF Appeals Board made the announcement, Hakimi featured in Paris Saint-Germain’s victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, qualifying for the 2025/2026 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.
DUBAWA’s social media search for post-match interactions involving Hakimi found that he was confronted by someone about his reaction to the decision. The footballer reacted with a broad smile, saying nothing. The video was published on TikTok by TNT Sports Mexico.
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSusS39xr
The viral claim that Hakimi allegedly rejected the AFCON trophy appears to shadow a prior viral false narrative about Hakimi and his mother. A previous viral story also debunked by DUBAWA falsely claimed that Hakimi’s then-wife had demanded more than half his assets in a divorce settlement, only to discover they were registered in his mother’s name.
That misinformation’s portrayal of Hakimi’s mother as a kind of guardian of his legacy and financial wisdom has stuck in public memory, thereby introducing an element of believability of any future misinformation that cites Hakimi making any decision based on his mother’s advice.
The current, unsubstantiated claim attributed to Hakimi, with the quote: “My mum told me to reject the Africa Cup of Nations trophy. I’m officially rejecting the trophy and hope my teammates do the same,” resonates emotionally with audiences familiar with the earlier false story. The two pieces of misinformation seem linked by a deliberate pattern: using Hakimi’s relationship with his mother as an emotional hook to lend false credibility to fabricated claims.
This false narrative carries real risks, including potential physical harm to Hakimi. Defying his own federation’s official position could inflame fan hostility toward him and expose him to harassment and abuse online.
Conclusion
Based on our investigation, there is no credible evidence that Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi has rejected the 2025 AFCON trophy or made any such statement in a verified interview, press conference, or on his official social media platforms. The viral quote appears fabricated, designed to exploit public emotions around the controversial CAF ruling.
