Guinea’s Ismael Sylla: Morocco Did Not Walk Off in 1976 AFCON Final
Rabat – A rumor has been circulating online in recent days claiming Morocco left the pitch during the decisive 1976 Africa Cup of Nations match against Guinea and still ended up with the trophy.
As football fans and commentators debate CAF’s ruling declaring Morocco winners of the 2025 AFCON, many social media accounts — and a few online news outlets — across the continent have been bringing up the rumor to cast doubt on Morocco’s first continental title.
But former Guinea international Ismael Sylla, who featured in that 1976 AFCON final against the Atlas Lions, has pushed back against what he has described as a false and dangerous claim.
Speaking in an interview with TV5MONDE, Sylla insisted that Morocco did not walk off after Guinea took the lead through Souleymane Cherif.
According to him, the match continued normally, and there was no incident of the kind now being described online. A late Moroccan equalizer, he said, came while the game was still being played as usual.
Sylla’s denial cuts directly against the misleading narrative now trying to suggest that Morocco wants CAF to punish Senegal for the same sin its national team committed fifty years ago.
Pour ceux qui n’ont pas suivi le @JTAtv5monde ce soir, voici le passage de l’ancien international guinéen Ismaël Sylla, alias “Eusébio” qui témoigne sur le match Maroc-Guinée lors de la CAN 1976 en Éthiopie.
— Tanou Diallo (@TanouDiallo18) March 20, 2026
While social media posts have tried to revive this revisionist history of the 1976 AFCON final, some outlets have even reported that Guinea is considering an appeal against the outcome of that AFCON result.
Yet, not only is there no reliable historical record showing that Morocco abandoned the field in that match, there is equally no verifiable or official source suggesting that Guinea has made or is considering making such a move.
Background
The 1976 tournament in Ethiopia did not end with a classic knockout final. Instead, CAF used a final round-robin group involving Morocco, Guinea, Nigeria, and Egypt.
Before the last match, Morocco were one point ahead of Guinea, which meant Guinea needed a win to take the title, while Morocco only needed a draw.
The match finished 1-1, and that was enough for Morocco to stay top of the standings and claim its first AFCON crown.
While there was a short-lived brawl on the pitch during that final AFCON game as Morocco protested against what they perceived as bad refereeing, they never left the pitch as some misinformed — or ideologically motivated — commentators and misled fans have suggested on social media.
As self-righteous revisionists take social media by storm to rewrite history and pontificate about a “historical” and “shameful” walk-off that never took place, testimonies like Sylla’s are essential to set the record straight.
Sylla was on the pitch when Morocco won its first AFCON. And as a key player of the 1976 Guinea team, he would have surely been one of the most vociferous critics of Morocco’s imaginary walk-off had it actually taken place.
Now that he — an eye-witness who would have loved his country to have won against the Atlas Lions — has slammed the false rumor making the rounds on social media, what will be the next “historical” proof of the new Morocco-bashing AFCON “specialists?”
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