Sport is a source of constantly renewed emotions. It does not need additional interference. However, this is the case as soon as it crosses the eastern border of the country.
Football is back in full swing. The opening of the “Botola Pro1 Inwi”, the official name of the Moroccan national championship, is scheduled for the end of the week. A great season is expected with the main players from last season: Raja, undefeated champion and winner of the Throne Cup (it is not a double, the cup in Morocco is one season behind), and AS FAR, brilliant second, finalist of the Cup and holder of the new record for goals scored in a season.
Other candidates will probably liven up the competition this year, such as Wydad Casablanca, which has been announced very strongly with XXL recruitments, promised by the club’s new leaders. It is true that the club is called upon to represent Africa for the new format of the Club World Cup, scheduled for July 2025, and will prepare accordingly. It owes its supporters revenge after one of its worst seasons in recent years.
The Berkane Sports Renaissance has done well by recruiting the excellent goalkeeper Munir Mohamadi, the Moroccan international, bronze medalist at the recent Olympic Games and number two for the Atlas Lions, will do the Oriental team some good. We remember his excellent performance at the World Cup in Qatar, when he had to replace the regular Bounou against Belgium at short notice. We can expect other surprises with the FUS of Rabat, always exemplary, a model of economic and sports management that a large number of clubs should take inspiration from, and with US Touarga and many others.
For Moroccan clubs involved internationally, the season has already started with the first African interclub matches. Raja, brilliantly, and AS FAR, after a complicated comeback, qualified for the next round of the African Champions League. This is the most important competition, it qualifies for the Club World Cup in the event of a final victory. The next one, scheduled for 2029 in Morocco, Spain and Portugal, in all likelihood, is a source of motivation for the participating teams. It is also the most lucrative competition.
In the other African club competition, US Touarga, whose African baptism of fire it was, was eliminated on penalties. The lack of experience of the players and the club at this level probably played tricks on them. The other Moroccan club involved in the CAF Cup, on the other hand, qualified without playing, because it was exempt from this first round due to its presence in the final during the previous edition.
Sport is a source of constantly renewed emotions. It does not need additional interference. However, this is the case as soon as it crosses the eastern border of the country. This is new: sporting confrontations between Morocco and Algeria have always been marked by sportsmanship, and Moroccan teams have always been received with maximum courtesy and hospitality, and vice versa. This is no longer the case, at least on the Algerian side. We remember the episode of Mandela’s grandson, the U-17s and the two confrontations last season between USMA and Renaissance de Berkane. They have turned into legal battles that are still ongoing. The political leaders, aware of their sporting failure, are fighting with all their might to drag out the disciplinary sentences. The case is currently being processed by the CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A heavy issue for those dealing with it, given the enormous political pressures, but light if we consider the arguments supporting it.
This episode of a series that promises to be long and boring has had an ugly, shameful and small sequel, in line with the intentions and ambitions of the new leaders of Algerian sport. It concerned the Moroccan women’s football team, AS FAR. The latter participates, as champion of Morocco, in the qualifying stages of the final tournament of the Women’s Football Champions League. Four teams are taking part: one Algerian, another Tunisian and finally an Egyptian team.
The first match pitted the Algerian champion team against AS FAR. It ended with a logical and heavy Moroccan victory, 4 goals to zero. A score that should have remained anecdotal if it had not been accompanied by two ridiculous behaviors. Both concern the organizers. They prepared an outrageous video showing the players of the Algerian team mocking the Moroccans before the match. The Moroccans returned the favor, it’s fair game, but this time soberly and after their victory.
They have two games to play against the Tunisian team tonight and the Egyptian team on Friday. They must stay focused on the objective: qualification. More seriously, the organizers refused to raise the Moroccan flag. A gratuitous gesture of hostility but enough to maintain the culture of hatred of the Moroccan. Hatred motivates those who suffer it. This is good news, we could have done without it willingly. The Moroccan was not educated for that, quite the contrary.
