Fan trouble, players refusing to compete, controversial refereeing decisions, and a missed penalty were all flashpoints in a memorable match that was eventually won by Senegal.

On Thursday, as many expected, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced several punishments for both the Lions of Teranga and the beaten finalist Morocco, with individual players and managers also facing penalties.

The final will perhaps be remembered most for the decision by some of Senegal’s players to walk off the pitch in protest of a penalty being awarded to the Atlas Lions in the final moments of regulation time.

Senegal manager Pape Thiaw has subsequently received a five-game ban from CAF and has been fined $100,000 for his role in leading the protest and for what is described as “unsporting conduct.”

CAF also fined the Senegalese soccer federation (FSF) $300,000 for the “improper conduct of supporters,” after fans clashed with police in a frantic ending to the match. It also received another $300,000 fine for the conduct of its players and staff, in addition to a further $15,000 fine for five of its players receiving cautions from the referee.

Senegalese stars Cheikh Baroy Ndiaye and Ismaïla Sarr were also handed two-game bans for their behavior towards the match official.

The game bans, though, do not include the World Cup, which FIFA organizes. The suspensions only apply to official CAF games.

While Senegal bore the brunt of CAF’s punishment, Morocco has also been slapped with several penalties.

Captain Achraf Hakimi received a two-game ban from CAF, one of which is suspended for a year, for his “unsporting behavior” during the final. His national teammate Ismael Saibari was also banned for three official CAF matches and fined $100,000.

The Moroccan soccer federation was also fined a total of $315,000, including punishment for the behavior of its players and staff, and for fans using lasers to distract players during the final. The fine also includes a penalty for the poor behavior of ball boys, who were seen attempting to take away the Senegalese goalkeeper’s hand towel during the match.

CAF’s announcement caps off what was a difficult ending to an otherwise brilliant tournament, one that seemingly continues to divide African soccer.

Blatter was the latest international soccer figure to call into question the suitability of the United States as a host country. He called for the boycott in a post on X that supported Mark Pieth’s comments in an interview last week with the Swiss newspaper Der Bund.

Pieth, a Swiss attorney specializing in white-collar crime and an anti-corruption expert, chaired the Independent Governance Committee’s oversight of FIFA reform a decade ago. Blatter was president of the world’s governing body for soccer from 1998-2015; he resigned amid an investigation into corruption.

In his interview with Der Bund, Pieth said, “If we consider everything we’ve discussed, there’s only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA! You’ll see it better on TV anyway. And upon arrival, fans should expect that if they don’t please the officials, they’ll be put straight on the next flight home. If they’re lucky.”

The United States is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19.

The international soccer community’s concerns about the United States stem from Trump’s expansionist posture on Greenland, and travel bans and aggressive tactics in dealing with migrants and immigration enforcement protestors in American cities, particularly Minneapolis.

Oke Göttlich, one of the vice presidents of the German soccer federation, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in an interview on Friday that the time had come to seriously consider boycotting the World Cup.

Travel plans for fans from two of the top soccer countries in Africa were thrown into disarray in December, when the Trump administration announced an expanded ban that would effectively bar people from Senegal and Ivory Coast following their teams unless they already have visas. Trump cited “screening and vetting deficiencies” as the main reason for the suspensions.

Fans from Iran and Haiti, two other countries that have qualified for the World Cup, will be barred from entering the United States as well; they were included in the first iteration of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration.