PARIS (AP) — Senegal players paraded the Africa Cup of Nations trophy in front of thousands of fans on Saturday, despite the Confederation of African Football's decision to strip the country of the title and award it to Morocco.
Ahead of a friendly match against Peru at Stade de France, Senegal players led by captain Kalidou Koulibaly took to the pitch with the trophy as part of pre-game celebrations.
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Senegal players celebrate with the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Senegal coach Pape Thiaw holds the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Senegal players celebrate with the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
A Senegal player holds the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Senegal players celebrate with the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
The Senegalese Football Association had announced it would present the Africa Cup trophy to its fans before the game in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. Paris has a significant Senegalese community.
Earlier this week in the French capital, Senegalese FA president Abdoulaye Fall said Senegal was the victim of “ the most grossly unfair administrative robbery” in the history of soccer and pledged that the country would defend its players’ “honor” at the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Senegal is challenging CAF's surprise ruling last week to strip the team of the title won in a chaotic final in January and give it to host nation Morocco.
Senegal’s legal team said the country still considers itself the champion of Africa. The CAF ’s appeals board ruled that Senegal is “declared to have forfeited the final” and its 1-0 win in extra time became a 3-0 default win for Morocco. The rationale was that Senegal players led by their coach had left the field in protest when Morocco was awarded a penalty, leading to a 15-minute stoppage.
Senegal’s appeal to be reinstated as champion was registered this week by CAS, which set no timetable for a likely long process toward a verdict. The appeal was promised by the Senegalese government, which also called for an international investigation “into suspected corruption” within CAF.
An appeal to CAS can typically take months to schedule a hearing then weeks or months more to announce a verdict. Senegal’s lawyers, however, will ask CAS to open an expedited procedure and hope the Moroccan federation and the CAF agree so that the case can be dealt with within two months.
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Senegal players celebrate with the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Senegal coach Pape Thiaw holds the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Senegal players celebrate with the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
A Senegal player holds the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Senegal players celebrate with the Africa Cup of Nations trophy ahead of the international friendly soccer match between Senegal and Peru in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Organizers of Saturday's “No Kings” rallies across the country are predicting that the protests against the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration could add up to one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history, with Minnesota taking center stage.
Organizers say more than 3,100 events have been registered in all 50 states, with more than 9 million people expected to participate.
In Washington, hundreds of marchers moved through the streets, past the Lincoln Memorial and into the National Mall, holding signs that read “Put down the crown, clown” and “Regime change begins at home.” Demonstrators rang bells, played drums and chanted “No kings.”
The Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement actions, particularly in Minnesota, were just one item on a long list of protesters' grievances that also included the war in Iran and the Trump administration's rollback of transgender rights.
In New York City, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, described Trump as the nation's “Bully in Chief” and said Minneapolis residents “forced the wannabe king to withdraw his shock troops."
“They want us all to be afraid to protest,” she said during a news conference. “They want us to be afraid that there’s nothing we can do to stop them. But you know what? They are wrong — dead wrong.”
The White House dismissed the rallies. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson described the protests as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.
Jackson said in a statement that the “only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee was also sharply critical.
“These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone," said Maureen O'Toole, spokesperson for the NRCC.
Organizers have designated the rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul as the national flagship event, in recognition of how the state where federal agents fatally shot two people who were monitoring Trump's immigration crackdown became an epicenter of resistance.
Headlining that observance will be Bruce Springsteen, performing “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote in response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and in tribute to the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets over the winter. Springsteen's Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, which has a “No Kings” theme, kicks off Tuesday in Minneapolis.
Minnesota organizers have told state officials they expect 100,000 people could converge on the Capitol grounds, where last June’s event drew an estimated 80,000 people.
The St. Paul rally will also feature singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda,Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of other activists, labor leaders and elected officials.
Rallies are also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. Countries with constitutional monarchies call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.
For those unable to attend in person, another activist group, Stand Up For Science, is hosting a “virtual and accessible” event online.
On Saturday morning in Paris, several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, along with French labor unions and human rights organizations, gathered at the Bastille.
“I protest all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless, and feckless, endless wars,” Ada Shen, the Paris No Kings organizer, said.
In Rome, thousands of people marched with defiant chants aimed at Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose right-wing government saw its referendum for streamlining Italy's judiciary badly fail earlier this week amid criticism that it was a threat to the courts' independence. Protesters waved banners protesting the Israeli and US attacks on Iran, calling for “A world free from wars.”
In London, people protesting the war in Iran held banners that said, “Stop the far right” and “Stand up to Racism.”
U.S. organizers told reporters in an online news conference Thursday that they expect Saturday's protests to be larger than the first two rounds of No Kings rallies, which they estimate drew more than 5 million people in June and more than 7 million in October.
Two-thirds of the RSVPs have come from outside of major urban centers, Greenberg said, listing registration surges in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well in competitive suburban areas of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
“This administration’s actions are angering not just Democratic voters or folks in big blue city centers — they are crossing a line for people in red and rural areas, in the suburbs, all over the country,” said Leah Greenberg, the other co-executive director of Indivisible.
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Associated Press videojournalist Nicholas Garriga in Paris and Associated Press reporters Colleen Berry in Milan, Italy; John Hanna, in Topeka, Kansas, and Todd Richmond, in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
People take part in a national anti-war demonstration organized by "No Kings Italy movement" in Rome, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People take part in a national anti-war demonstration organized by "No Kings Italy movement" in Rome, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People take part in a national anti-war demonstration organized by "No Kings Italy movement" in Rome, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A woman holding a banner reading "No Kings, No War" takes part in the "No Kings" protest in Paris, France, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty takes part in the "No Kings" protest in Paris, France, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
FILE - Protesters stand off against California National Guard soldiers at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, during a "No Kings" protest, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
FILE - A person holds a sign reading "No Kings, No Oligarchs" as veterans and their supporters demonstrate outside Union Station Nov. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Thousands of protesters fill Times Square during a "No Kings" protest in New York, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)
FILE - Dee Cahill of Margate, Fla., holds a "No Kings" sign as she participates in a pro-democracy, anti-Trump protest outside Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., as part of the "Good Trouble Lives On" national day of action, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
FILE - Demonstrators march down Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the "No Kings" protest, June 14, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
