Gambiaj.com – (PARIS, France) – Veteran football coach Claude Le Roy has come out strongly in defense of Senegal following criticism over the team’s conduct during the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, urging restraint and warning against what he described as hasty judgments driven by emotion rather than context.
Speaking to Le Figaro on Tuesday, the 77-year-old former African national team coach, widely known as the “White Wizard,” rejected calls for harsh sanctions against the Lions of Teranga, stressing that football, particularly at the level of a continental final, is an intensely human and emotional contest.
Le Roy, who was present on the touchline during the tense closing moments of the final and was seen attempting to persuade Sadio Mané to call his teammates back, said the controversy surrounding Senegal should be viewed through the prism of the extraordinary pressure of the occasion.
“I don’t like passing value judgments,” Le Roy said when asked about the actions of Senegal head coach Pape Thiaw, who briefly instructed his players to head to the dressing room amid heightened tensions.
“Pape managed his team well, but he had a moment of confusion. He acknowledged it and apologized. In football, even great leaders and great coaches can lose their footing. A coach is not a machine without emotion.”
While noting that members of Thiaw’s technical staff could have intervened with greater calm, Le Roy insisted the episode did not warrant stigmatization of Senegal or disproportionate punishment.
“A final is played on emotion, on personal vibrations. Rationality disappears, and that is also football,” he said, describing the match as “so surreal that nerves were pushed to the limit.”
Beyond the immediate controversy, Le Roy deliberately broadened the discussion to what he sees as deeper structural and political problems affecting African football.
In unusually blunt remarks, he criticised global football leadership and raised the possibility of an African boycott of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“Football is life,” he said. “It is not Gianni Infantino, proud to be in the Oval Office or at Mar-a-Lago, endorsing a president who damages Africa by dismantling NGOs. That is the tragedy of this continent.”
Referring to President Donald Trump, Le Roy questioned whether African nations should continue to accept what he views as disrespect from the highest levels of global football governance.
He added that during a recent Confederation of African Football (CAF) press conference, he was repeatedly denied the microphone, suggesting officials feared his non-conformist stance. “The leaders at the top of football no longer talk about football, only about money,” he said. “My fight on this issue is not over.”
Through his intervention, Le Roy has positioned himself as a vocal advocate for Senegal, arguing that dignity, context and the emotional reality of African football should outweigh institutional reflexes and the threat of sanctions. In his view, the AFCON champions deserve understanding—not condemnation—for actions born in the furnace of a historic final.
