Football, Moroccans and a runaway monarchy, By Owei Lakemfa

Moroccans. I love Moroccans. They are a fine people with a very rich history and culture. But in the last six decades their country has been in the news, often for the wrong reasons.

They are now known for being intolerant, divisive, quarrelsome, arrogant, but subservient and unscrupulous.

When it was to host the 2026 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals, some of us with knowledge of the Moroccan politics thought it was not a good idea.

We were not disappointed when the games were marked, not with the friendship associated with football, but tension and intolerance on and off the pitch. Visiting fans were harassed. Moroccan officials and ball boys regularly stole the hand towels of goalkeepers and openly wrestled players and officials from other countries. For Morocco, it was not football but war.

Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala, who exhibited outright bias, controversially ruled out a Senegal goal. When, therefore, he awarded a controversial 90th minute penalty to host Morocco, the Senegalese were understandably furious. There were violent scenes in the stands. Senegal’s Coach Pape Thiaw ordered his players off the field. A 17-minute delay followed before play resumed due to the intervention of captain Sadio Mané.

Senegal scored an undisputed goal and won the 18 January AFCON final.

A bitter Morocco which had enthusiastically resumed the match, later protested to CAF which 58 days after the final whistle, awarded the cup to Morocco following the ruling of its Appeals Board. It claimed that the stoppage violated Articles 82 and 84 of its rules which forbade players leaving the field. CAF was not interested in the fact that the match was never called off, the referee allowed the match to continue and both teams agreed that the match be concluded.

The football world was outraged because championships are won on the field of play not in board rooms.

To worsen matters. CAF instructed Sadio Mané to hand over his Most Valuable Player (MVP) award to Morocco’s Brahim Díaz.

There is yet no proof that the CAF Appeals Board was compromised by Morocco, but the illogicality of the decision, Morocco’s manifest desperation to win the cup, and its tradition of compromising entities, led many to believe there were underhand dealings.

But like I explained earlier, the problems associated with Morocco are not its citizens, but the monarchy. This was fully brought home by the position of the Moroccan captain Achraf Hakimi who in reflecting the sportsmanship of his squad, rejected the dubious award. In a message to the world, he wrote: “My mum told me to reject the AFCON trophy. I’m officially rejecting the trophy and hope my teammates do the same. We had a chance to win it, but we failed to win it. That’s football – sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Senegal beat us fairly and deserved the win. It would be unfair to ruin their joy after the hard work they put in. I respect the CAF decision, but I’m officially rejecting the trophy. I didn’t win the 2025 AFCON. Congratulations to Senegal once again.”

I do not have any doubt that the Moroccan monarchy will find ways of sanctioning Hakimi as it brooks no dissent.

Also, the monarchy will stop at nothing to ensure the dubious CAF award stays even if it has to expend more resources.

This is in its DNA. For instance, in order to undermine the African Union (AU) position recognising the sovereignty of Western Sahara, a neighbouring country partially occupied by Morocco, the latter set out to induce some African countries. This was to get them to open consulates in the occupied territories as a way of giving recognition to Morocco’s illegal occupation.

Morocco and the CAF leadership have not only ridiculed African football, but also transformed a friendly tournament into one promoting further divisiveness in the continent.

Morocco had in the late 1970s tried to split the continental Organisation of Africa Unity, OAU, now known as the African Union, AU. This was when the body decided that Morocco had no right to colonise a sister African country. After losing at the International Court of Justice and the court of the Africa people, Morocco tried to induce some African countries to support its position. When it failed, it staged a walkout, but no other country walked out with it. It took a disgraced Morocco 33 years to walk back to the AU.

The problem is not Moroccans, but a dictatorial monarchy that knows no word like shame. Its lack of self-worth is manifest in its attempts to ingratiate itself to Europeans.

In 1987, it applied to join what is now the European Union (EU).

Nobody needed any seer to predict that such an unreasonable application would be rejected as Morocco is an African country located in the African continent and not in Europe.

Despite this disgraceful rejection, the Moroccan monarchy still distributes the natural resources of the Western Sahara to its European masters like a war booty.

Although, the European Court of Justice has ruled seven times that Morocco has no right to rob Western Sahara and pass the loot to European countries, the Moroccan monarchy continues to do so.

Africa’s hope for development is hinged on the integration of its regions as a basic step towards the complete integration of the continent. While all other regions are working towards this, the North African region is not because Morocco is virtually at war with all its neighbours. So, the Arab Maghreb Union, AMU/UMA, with headquarters in Rabat, Morocco has become moribund. The last Heads of State Summit of the body was 1994, that is over three decades ago!

After destroying the AMU, Morocco turned to apply for membership of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.

How can a country in the North African Region want to join the regional organisation of West African States? The application was not even considered.

Morocco is also the only country I know in the world which expels persons it claims are its citizens!

Aminatou Haidar, a Sahrawi, visited Nigeria in 2009. But on returning home, Morocco which claims that the human rights campaigner is its citizen, seized Haidar, confiscated her passport and deported her to Las Palmas a Spanish territory. The question the Moroccan leadership could not answer is, if you expel your supposed citizen where to you expect her to go?

Unless there are changes in the Moroccan political system, the country co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Portugal and Spain, may be problematic.

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.