This Is How Officials Distorted Morocco’s Achievements in Qatar World Cup

A historic achievement for the Atlas Lions was distorted by Moroccan political corruption in the Qatar World Cup 2022. This is how Moroccans described the “bad habit” of their officials transferred from the Kingdom to Doha.

At a time when the Moroccan national team scored historic achievements in the World Cup in Qatar by reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup, there were personalities accused of corruption by the fans after tampering with tickets for the quarter and golden square matches.

These personalities are affiliated with the leader of the government coalition, the National Rally of Independents party headed by Aziz Akhannouch, and at the same time with the delegation of the local Football Association.

After the sudden qualification of the “Atlas Lions” from the group stage, the fans were surprised that tickets were sold out from the FIFA platform, which prompted the Moroccan Football Association to distribute hundreds of tickets to the fans.

Morocco succeeded in writing a new history for Arab and African football after qualifying for the semi-finals of the World Cup after defeating Portugal on December 10, 2022.

Morocco became the third team from outside Europe and South America to qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup, after the United States in 1930, and South Korea in 2002.

 

Scratch the Image

On December 16, 2022, the National Rally of Independents announced the referral of the parliamentarian affiliated with the party, Mohamed el-Haddaoui, to the Disciplinary Committee regarding an audio recording revealing that he had sold World Cup tickets in Doha.

The statement said the social networking figures circulated an audio recording that is likely attributed to el-Haddaoui, where he sold the football tickets.

It indicated that this behavior, if proven, offends the brilliant image that the national team has given to the world, so that the party can take note of all the data related to this file and arrange all penalties.

The phone call shows that there are negotiations between Mohamed el-Haddaoui, who is the president of a football club in the city of Safi, and a person who appears to have recorded the call to buy two tickets and that the parliamentarian set the price at 12,000 dirhams ($1,200) for both.

The concerned parliamentarian did not deny the validity of the audio recording, but he denied that he had traded in the tickets distributed by the Football Association for free.

In support of his point of view regarding his innocence in this case, he told Hespress that he had disbursed 60 million centimes ($60,000) from his pocket to reside in Qatar.

However, the parliamentarian’s statement constitutes a violation of the maximum limit set by the Office of Exchange of Morocco (official) for financial allocations that travelers are allowed to transfer abroad at 100,000 dirhams ($10,000) each year.

According to Al-Youm 24 local website, the Football Association opened an investigation into the matter, but it is expected that the Public Prosecution Office will move to hear the Parliamentarian el-Haddaoui, in this case, which sparked controversy and offended the image of Morocco.

The National Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Morocco has also discussed the issue of audio leaks circulating on social media related to manipulation and brokering in the sale of tickets for the national team matches during the World Cup.

The association stated, through a statement on December 19, that the parliamentarian, el-Haddaoui, offered one of the fans two tickets to enter the stadium for $1,200, which is considered immoral behavior that had harmful repercussions for the nation’s reputation, unlike the good reputation left by the national team.

It added that the parliamentary team requires accountability.

The association denounced some Moroccans’ exploitation of the tragedy of Moroccan fans in the World Cup in Qatar to gain money at the expense of the suffering of citizens whose main concern was to encourage their national team.

 

Stealing Public Money

Madar 21 local website said that the Moroccan national team “touched the sky of glory” in the first World Cup to be held in an Arab land, and it presented an ideal picture of national football, but some Moroccan officials threw that in the trash.

It added in its article that the national team set an example for all international teams, broke all barriers that impeded politics, and united the Arab and African peoples with the strong will of coach Walid Regragui. But some Moroccans did not care about the image of Morocco.

A famous Moroccan page on Facebook, Lfercha, was the first to reveal a lot of information, in detail with the names of the participants in selling tickets for the national team’s matches.

Among the most prominent names is a member of the Football Association, former president of Al-Raja Club, Mohamed Boudrika, who was accused by the fans, especially on the Qatari BeIN Sports channel, on the air, on December 14.

Lfercha page said that the scandal of selling Boudrika tickets is a drop in the ocean of corruption that sucks the blood of Moroccans. Boudrika is behind every scandal and disaster during the Qatar World Cup and everything related to selling and offering tickets to his entourage and relatives; he “traded” with the passion and love of Moroccans who want to encourage the national team by selling tickets on the black market with the help of his assistants.

On December 17, it explained that there were 13,000 tickets for distribution at Al Janoub Stadium, of which 2,500 were distributed free of charge for women, 2,500 for men, and approximately 800 tickets at the airport. “Where are the rest?”

The Facebook page said: “Ask Lotfi Bennis, who is close to Fouzi Lekjaa [President of the Moroccan Football Association] and Boudrika, a plastic dealer in Casablanca, far from the football world, but he has been in Qatar since the beginning of the World Cup, his role is to sell the tickets allocated by the university to Moroccan fans.”

It continued: “A friend and broker of Boudrika sells tickets for 1,100 euros, and until the classification match between Morocco and Croatia, he sold the tickets for 1,300 dollars.

“There are Moroccan victims who are ready to give their testimonies, they bought a lot of tickets from him, and they will put the arguments they have with the authorities.”

Lfercha called on Moroccan people to shed light on this issue, which has caused the Moroccans a lot of harm and has also distorted their image in front of the Qatari and international authorities, not to mention the stealing of public money.

 

Dark Sides

The Moroccan Assahifa website said that the World Cup in Qatar did not only show the strong will of the players and their coach’s confidence, “it also revealed the darkest aspects within the corridors of the Football Association, which internally turned into a mine of interests for people who mixed sports with politics, and made their positions an opportunity to seize spoils.”

In an article published on December 15, the website pointed out that “Lekjaa entrusted Boudrika with the task of distributing tickets for the matches in Spain and Portugal, depriving many who deserved the most.

However, there were many remarks and criticisms against the former president of the Raja Casablanca team until the disaster occurred just before the semi-final match between Morocco and France.

“Boudrika showed the exaggerated interest in exploitation, as the man who was elected to the House of Representatives on behalf of the National Rally of Independents Party, which is also the party of the Prime Minister and the owner of the largest party in Parliament, distributed the tickets based on his whims and in accordance with what serves his political interests and his ambition to emerge again as a well-known leader,” according to the website.

“Boudrika was supposed to hand over the tickets to the fans upon their arrival at Doha Airport via two planes, but he had already distributed them to those close to him.”

This led to the fans being banned from entering the country, and then Moroccan Airlines announced the cancellation of the rest of the flights, which sparked massive protests at Casablanca Airport.

This incident opened the door to many questions about the federation, especially as it relates to a big scandal that greatly damaged Morocco’s reputation in a country where it gained a lot of compassion thanks to the performance of its players in the World Cup.