Senegal football fans home after royal pardon
Dakar: A group of Senegalese football supporters jailed following their country’s chaotic, violence-plagued Africa Cup of Nations final in Morocco in January returned home Sunday after being pardoned by the Moroccan king. King Mohammed VI granted the fans a pardon “on humanitarian grounds” on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, Morocco’s royal court said Saturday. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye welcomed the jubilant supporters on arrival at the airport outside Dakar just after 1:00 am, an AFP journalist reported. “We’re very happy to have them back on Senegalese soil,” Faye, who donned a tracksuit for the occasion, told journalists. He thanked Moroccan authorities for the pardon — but in what Morocco will likely perceive as a new dig, hailed the national team as “two-time African champions,” even though the January final is the subject of an ongoing dispute before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. Senegal won the tumultuous continental final against Morocco in Rabat on January 18, but the match was later awarded on appeal to the hosts. With the match tied at 0-0, after a penalty awarded to Morocco in stoppage time of the second half — just after a Senegal goal was disallowed — Senegalese fans tried to storm the pitch and hurled projectiles. The Senegalese team left the pitch in protest at the penalty decision, halting play for nearly 20 minutes. When they returned, they gleefully watched Morocco miss their penalty, and went on to score a 94th-minute winner. In February, Moroccan courts sentenced 18 Senegalese supporters held in Morocco since the final to prison terms ranging from three months to a year for hooliganism. Three were released from jail in mid-April after