The defeat of the Moroccan national football team on Tuesday against South Africa in the Africa Cup of Nations hosted by Ivory Coast has not escaped attempts to link it to the political positions and steps taken by Morocco in recent years, particularly the move to re-establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
This is seen as the latest example of what many describe as “tainting sports with politics.”
While sports analysts interpreted the loss of the Moroccan team in terms of choices made by the national coach or the impact of some absences on the team’s performance, certain Algerian media outlets and pages explained it as “divine justice” in favor of “Bafana Bafana” or the “resistance” team, referring to Pretoria’s stances on the Palestinian issue.
They claimed that Morocco’s national team, labeled by some as afflicted by the “curse of normalization,” suffered in the match against South Africa.
This debate seems to have transcended the expected media and Algerian pages and reached Morocco itself. Aziz Ghali, president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, sparked outrage among Moroccans on social media.
He was criticized after considering in a now-deleted “tweet” that the match between the Moroccan and South African teams was a “clash between normalization and resistance.”
Some viewed this as an “unfortunate and denial-of-Morocco stance,” while a few defended the rights activist, rejecting doubts about his positions and human rights advocacy.
Responding to the situation, Baraa Shadi Abdel Salam, an international crisis management and conflict analysis expert, stated, “The behavior of the Algerian regime’s media towards the victory or defeat of the Moroccan team, or any achievement by Morocco in any field, is something the Moroccan people are accustomed to.
It falls within the framework of the hostile policies pursued by this regime in its regional neighborhood to serve its expansionist interests.”
Abdel Salam added in a statement to Hespress, “Targeting the Moroccan team in this context and linking its elimination to military confrontations in Gaza is an attempt by parties hostile to the Kingdom of Morocco to symbolically kill the beautiful mental image drawn by the Lions’ team in the Qatar World Cup, representing Morocco and the Moroccan people.
It is, in general, an attempt to damage the image of Morocco and its foreign policies.”
The expert pointed out that “linking the elimination of the Moroccan team from the AFCON finals to military confrontations between Hamas and the Israeli army is a complete media scandal promoted by hostile parties.
It follows a pre-agreed plan with clear mechanisms, both externally and internally, to harm Morocco’s image and its diplomatic and geopolitical policies.”
Abdel Salam concluded, stating that “the author of this ‘tweet’ and others who have engaged in this narrative have forgotten that South Africa has full diplomatic relations with Israel.
It was among the few countries that voted in favor of the partition resolution for Palestine on November 29, 1947, recommending the establishment of a Jewish state on Palestinian land.
It was the second African country to recognize Israel, alongside Liberia, on May 2, 1948, nine days after the declaration of Israel’s independence.
They also forgot Nelson Mandela’s stance and his statement to the Israeli media during his visit to Israel and his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 1999, saying, ‘Israel worked very closely with the apartheid regime, but did not engage in any heinous acts.'”
