In what is slowly developing into a new norm in football since the January 18th AFCON final, Kocaelispor players walked off the pitch in the 94th minute to protest a penalty awarded to Konyaspor over the past weekend.
The post explicitly highlights the parallel with the incidents during the 2025 AFCON final in Morocco, where Senegal also left the pitch before returning 15 minutes later.
This “surreal scene” confirms a worrying international trend: walking off the pitch is becoming a tool for media protest, normalised by the leniency of the initial CAF sanctions in the Morocco-Senegal case.
Unless FIFA becomes intentional and stamps authority over the pitch walk-off incidents, match interruptions will continue for the longest time possible.
