Lausanne (Switzerland) 16 March 2025 (SPS)– The Tribunal Arbitral du Sport (TAS) has annulled a decision by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) that permitted Moroccan football club Renaissance Sportive de Berkane (RS Berkane) to wear jerseys displaying a map of Morocco that included the occupied territory of Western Sahara.
The ruling issued on 26th February 2025, comes after an appeal by the Fédération Algérienne de Football (FAF) and Union Sportive Médina d’Alger (USMA), who argued that the map constituted a political message in violation of CAF and FIFA regulations.
The case centered on the inclusion of Western Sahara in Morocco’s map on the RS Berkane jerseys during the 2023/2024 CAF Confederation Cup. The FAF and USMA challenged the decision of CAF’s Jury of Appeal, which had wrongly ruled before that the map did not breach any regulations.
However, the TAS firmly disagreed, stating that the inclusion of Western Sahara in Morocco’s borders on the football kit represented a clear political message. It ruled that the map’s depiction was in direct violation of Article 60 of the CAF Equipment Regulations and Article 33 of the CAF Confederation Cup Marketing Rules, both of which prohibit any form of political symbolism on sportswear.
The TAS decision emphasized several key legal points. The ruling referenced Article 2 and Article 5.1 of the CAF Statutes, which mandate strict neutrality in football and prohibit any political interference. By allowing RS Berkane to wear jerseys with a politically sensitive map, CAF failed to uphold its own rules.
Moreover, FIFA regulations and the Laws of the Game (IFAB) explicitly prohibit political messaging on team kits, reinforcing the TAS decision that the RS Berkane jerseys should not have been approved.
On another hand, TAS acknowledged that Western Sahara is recognized by the African Union (AU) as a sovereign state and remains a non-self-governing territory under UN classification. The tribunal noted that Morocco has no recognized sovereignty over Western Sahara under international law, making the depiction of the map a direct political statement that serves the Moroccan propaganda.
The tribunal was particularly critical of CAF’s handling of the matter. It found that CAF’s Jury of Appeal failed to apply its own neutrality rules and ignored the geopolitical implications of the map’s use. The decision to approve the jerseys was deemed a breach of CAF’s obligation to remain apolitical and a dangerous precedent for future cases.
As a consequence of the ruling TAS annuls CAF’s decision that authorized the RS Berkane jerseys, and confirmed that the map inclusion of Western Sahara into Morocco’s map was an illegal political message. It finally ruled that CAF must adhere strictly to its own neutrality regulations in future cases.
The decision by TAS sets a major precedent in ensuring political neutrality in international football. It highlights the responsibility of governing bodies like CAF and FIFA to strictly enforce regulations prohibiting political symbols in sports.
With this decision, the TAS has sent a strong message: football must remain free from political influence, and governing bodies must enforce their own rules without exception, and Morocco’s sports clubs use of colonial maps including Western Sahara territory is illegal, because Morocco has no sovereignty over the territory. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
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