Morocco’s outstanding performance at the ongoing Qatar 2022 has made the world to focus on African football, and it has significantly demonstrated to the rest of the African continent the value of proper planning and investments. Suffice to mention that this success is as a result of Morocco’s decade-long football plan.
Four years ago, Sunday Oliseh, former Nigeria’s Super Eagles coach, predicted that the Moroccan team will reach the World Cup semi-finals if they plan well to have a FIFA accredited functional facilities, quality organizational preparation, sponsorship, sufficient financial investment and years of planning and hard work.
In the interview, Sunday Oliseh remarked, “If the Moroccan team has the same facilities the Japanese have to prepare for the World Cup, Morocco will get to the semi-finals; If they have the same financial investments that they put into this team, “Morocco will get to the same semi-finals; If they have the same quality of organization, preparation years before the World Cup that they have, sponsorship that they have, they will get to the semi-finals. Those are the things that are keeping the African teams down”.
True to the prediction, Morocco’s progress at the Qatar 2022 World Cup performance can be attributed to:
- Investment in Football. The King of Morocco invests yearly into football and has also created a superior football academy. Apart from South Africa, no country has as much investment as Morocco in football.
- The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FMRF) focused on Grassroots football and a sustainable funnel of footballing talents.
- A national football academy was set up, while Moroccan talents in the diaspora were unearthed via a network of scouts around the world.
- The coach and his team of brave footballers had a hard work preparation.
It is no gainsaying that the Moroccan football coach and team of players should be celebrated for this achievement.
The FMRF deserves a national, continental and global football federation model recognition.
Again, recently former Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, said the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup is the best tournament Africa has ever taken part in. For the first time in Africa’s history, Morocco will play a World Cup semi-final against France after defeating Portugal 1-0 in the quarter final.
The Atlas Lions had topped Group F, finishing ahead of Belgium, Croatia and Canada, to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition. They then overcame 2010 champions Spain in the round of 16 stage, beating them 3-0 in a penalty shootout.
They clashed with defending champions France in Doha’s Al Bayt Stadium on Wednesday, 14th December, and lost with a 2-0 goal line.
Speaking ahead of the semi-final clash against defending champions France, Oliseh called this the greatest tournament for the Africa as each team that represented the continent won at least a game. “As far as Africa is concerned, this is the greatest tournament my (Africa) continent has ever had, not only because we have an African and an Arab nation in the semi-finals for the first time, but because every African team that has come here has won one game at least,” Oliseh said in a FIFA Technical Study Group press conference.
Senegal in Group A defeated Qatar and Ecuador, Cameroon edged Brazil by a lone goal after playing out an enthralling 3-3 draw with Serbia, Tunisia also beat France 1-0 while Ghana were also 3-2 winners over South Korea. Senegal got to the second round and played very well despite missing their best players,” he said. He also praised Morocco ahead of their feisty semi-final clash against champions France. “Morocco have made the most of their compact defence and the whole team work so hard without the ball. “Sofiane Amrabat has also done a fantastic job in plugging the gaps. And when they go into defensive mode, they have triangles everywhere. Playing with triangles makes it difficult for opposition players to play a pass and break the lines without being crowded out. And how has that worked out for Morocco? They have only conceded one goal, which wasn’t scored by the opposition but by themselves.” Morocco has not conceded a goal from an opposition player in this World Cup, with the only goal against them coming through Nayef Aguerd’s own goal against Canada.
“Look, we’ve had great players play in the European League. In fact, we are the ones and the South Americans and Europeans; we are the ones that have made football in the Champions League what it is. The variety, the beauty that comes with it, you know and now the Arab world has joined in, which is also great,” Oliseh added.
The making of Moroccan Team, the World Cup heroes from Africa
Welsh coach Osian Roberts, investment in talent centres and scouting have helped Morocco to make history in Qatar.
For Osian Roberts it was too good an offer to turn down. When the coach once described as the most influential man in Welsh football was invited to Rabat in the summer of 2019 to meet Fouzi Lekjaa, the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, he was guided on a tour of the Complexe Mohammed VI Maamoura – the state-of-the-art national training centre that would officially open a few months later. Roberts signed up as the federation’s technical director and the two years he spent in the job mean he is looking on from afar at the team’s remarkable World Cup achievements with particular excitement and satisfaction.
“I was absolutely convinced and wanted to be fully onboard because of the passion he [Lekjaa] has for football in Morocco – that’s what sold it to me,” says Roberts, now assistant manager at Crystal Palace. “It wasn’t just a wish or a dream. There was a plan behind it in order to achieve success. For me, it was just a wonderful opportunity to develop football further in Morocco and become one of the leading nations in Africa that everybody could aspire to work towards. It almost felt like an obligation for me to jump on the bus and drive it forward.”
The Atlas Lions made history on Wednesday, 14th December 2022, when they became the first African team to contest a World Cup semi-final. Led by the Paris-born manager Walid Regragui, a side made up of homegrown stars including the dashing midfielder Azzedine Ounahi and barnstorming striker Youssef En-Nesyri, and players drawn from the country’s wide diaspora, such as Hakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi, face the world champions, France. According to Roberts, their success is no accident.
“Morocco is very serious about its football and the level of investment over the last 10 years has been quite astounding,” he says. “Some of these players at the World Cup have graduated from the Mohamed VI youth academy but since then the national training centre has been built and was inaugurated by the king while I was there. It’s an unbelievable facility that is as good as anything in the world. At the same time, they have opened five regional centres for the best boys and En-Nesyri – who scored the winning goal against Portugal in the quarter-finals – was the original poster boy for the academy named after the football-mad reigning monarch that opened in 2009 and has produced Ounahi, the defender Nayaf Aguerd of West Ham and the third-choice goalkeeper Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti. Competition for places is fierce, with the academy’s sides playing matches in Morocco’s amateur leagues and in youth tournaments around Europe. There are close links with clubs in Spain and France, such as Málaga – where Sevilla’s En-Nesyri began his career in Europe – and Ouhani’s Angers.
“They have made it easier for players to find a pathway to Europe – some have succeeded, and some have not,” says Abdellah Aarab, who owns the Moroccan football website almarssadpro.com. “For many years we used to see our best players go to the Gulf leagues for the money rather than try to develop their careers at smaller European clubs first.”
Roberts believes vast improvements in the standard of coaching in Morocco have made an important difference, particularly for Regragui, who won the domestic title with FUS and Wydad Casablanca. “There was a tendency for most opportunities to go to more experienced coaches but now to see him as a young coach coming through and succeeding at this level is so important,” Roberts says.
The former Morocco defender was, with Senegal’s Aliou Cissé, part of the first pro-licence run by the Confederation of African Football and graduated in June, two months before he replaced Vahid Halilhodzic. “The course had started before I arrived, but I continued that course and it actually finished after I left for Palace,” Roberts says. “During my time there we had Roberto Martínez, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry deliver modules for the students, and of course Regragui was one of them.”
Morocco’s group-stage victory over Belgium was therefore even more embarrassing for Martínez but he is not the only manager outwitted by Regragui at this World Cup. The cosmopolitan Regragui has united a squad that speaks several languages including Darija (the Moroccan dialect of Arabic), French, Spanish and even English. “There are a few players in the squad who are Berbers or Amazigh that grew up in the Netherlands and they speak Berber more at home with their parents,” Aarab says. “With them he is communicating more in English.”
Fourteen players in Morocco’s squad were born overseas. Most were identified by the extensive scouting system established by Lekjaa and Roberts’s predecessor as technical director, Nasser Larguet. “We had full-time scouts in Holland, Germany, France, Spain and Scandinavia that are monitoring these players on a regular basis,” says Roberts. “There was a database for all of those who were eligible for Morocco in all those countries … it was necessary given the number of players living overseas. That department has been extremely important.”
Three France youth internationals – Amine Adli of Bayer Leverkusen, Nice’s Sofiane Diop and Mohamed-Ali Cho, a Real Sociedad striker once on Everton’s books – are thought to be next on the federation’s radar. “When you bring young players to the country and you want to convince them to play for Morocco then it really helps to see such a professional training base like you see in western Europe or Qatar,” says the Moroccan pundit Jalal Bounouar.
Roberts said Morocco should aim to be in the world’s top 20 when he stepped down in June 2021, and it is not only the senior men’s side who have exceeded expectations. The women’s team lost to South Africa in the Africa Cup of Nations final on home soil in July and the men’s futsal team are reigning Arab and African champions and reached the world championships quarter-finals last year.
“I just felt the level of expectation needed to be raised because of the infrastructure and the talent that exists in the country,” says Roberts, who spent almost 10 years at the Football Association of Wales and was Chris Coleman’s assistant for the run to the Euro 2016 semi-finals. “Having worked with Wales for such a long time, we went from 117th in the world to eighth and then managed to sustain it with good planning and a vision of where we wanted to go. Likewise for Morocco now – this can’t be a one-off.”
Bedore the Morocco – France semi-final game on Wednesday, 14th December 2022, Roberts said Vieira – the former France midfielder who is now his boss at Palace – is concerned about facing Regragui’s side. “He’s not so confident about this game as he has been. He knows he’s been in that situation where they have found it difficult in those games. Patrick always said when he played for France, they always found it difficult playing against African teams. They knew they would raise the level against them and were so motivated and you could see it in their faces. That might prove to be the case again.”
The influence of private capital, competence on Morocco’s World Cup blast
It would be recalled that more than four decades ago, Brazil’s football legend Pele made a shocking prediction that “an African nation will win the World Cup” and many experts throughout the decades made fun of him.
At Qatar 2022, Morocco achievements have united a region and continent in celebration erupting with joy before Wednesday’s game against France, Morocco’s onetime colonial ruler. Morocco, who reached the round of 16 at the 1986 World Cup, is the only team from outside Europe or South America to make it to the semi-final stage in Qatar 2022.
Until the semi-final 2-0 score line losing to France, the team did not lose at the Qatar 2022 World Cup and had conceded only one goal in their past seven games. “The feeling is incredible; it can be likened to Nigeria’s triumph at the 1996 Olympics,” Ndagi Job Goshi, the General Manager of Liferay Africa said. “How they’ve built up to this stage has been the most impressive thing,” Job Goshi said. “They sacked the coach before the tournament and brought in somebody who was not afraid to make decisions and the tactical discipline.
Experts say Morocco’s long-term foresight, capital investment and bravery to appoint a coach unafraid to dream investment has led to Atlas Lions being the first from Africa to make the semi-finals. “The development of football in Morocco is founded on a triangular approach that should form the basis of the development of any system: facilities, talent and qualified personnel,” the Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) president, Fouzi Lekjaa said.
Usher Komugisha, an Analyst for Al Jazeera at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar believes “Morocco’s success is not coming from the sky. They are intentional”. “They have a Mohammed VI Complex in Maamoura covering almost 30 hectares with an overall investment of $ 65.4 million built over a period of 3 years. It’s used by all the national teams,” She tweeted.
After decades of footballing mediocrity, the FMRF with the backing of King Mohammed VI – decided to overhaul the nation’s football structure. In 2009 the FMRF opened its national football academy, the Mohamed VI Football Academy – which helped develop current international players like Nayef Aguerd and Youssef En-Nesryi – as well as trying to unearth talent in the Moroccan diaspora by employing scouts from across Europe to flag any eligible youth players in Europe.
The federation also began investing in women’s football, developing football in schools and clubs as well as creating a national league structure. Funded by the FMRF, findings showed Morocco is currently the only nation in the world to have two tiers of women’s football that are both fully professional.
The crown jewel of Morocco’s football investment is the Mohamed VI Football Complex just outside Rabat. The training complex contains four five-star hotels, eight FIFA standard pitches – one of which is indoor in a climate-controlled building – as well a medical facility that includes a dentist. “That investment over the last decade has begun to pay off,” Sky Sports’ Graeme Souness said on ITV. He added, “Morocco’s success at the World Cup may be the best story of the tournament so far, but it is not the result of luck and grit, but rather expertise and planning”.
“Morocco is leading the way with the Talent Development Scheme, setting an example for others to follow,” Steven Martens, the technical director at the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) says.
Morocco coach Walid Regragui
Having already won domestic and continental club titles this year, the 47-year-old has done do well at Qatar 2022. “I come from the Parisian suburbs,” he has previously said. “We are hungry guys there and love challenges. The more you tell us we can’t make it, the more we want to try.” This was fortunate as Regragui faced defending champions France on Wednesday 14th December 2022, just three months after his first game in charge of Morocco.
Owing to inspirational man-management and a bond with his players that is close yet strict and trustworthy, the former international has moulded a talented squad to all pull in the same direction. “The coach has managed to form this unit and that is his greatest achievement,” Rachid Azzouzi, who played for Morocco at the 1998 World Cup, told BBC Sport Africa. “Every player has respect for him and wants to carry out his plan – this is the reason they’re playing so well.”
Another is quite simply the belief that Regragui, who has delivered three wins and a penalty shootout success in four World Cup matches after just two victories in Morocco’s previous 17, has instilled. Those close to the former Ligue 1 and La Liga defender speak of him exuding positivity, noting that Regragui’s own career progressed thanks to both his professionalism and belief. He has now honed that into in his players.
Witness the way he calmly helped Munir Mohamedi keep a clean sheet against Belgium after being called upon at the last minute; how Youssef En-Nesyri, a selection criticised by some in the Moroccan media, has become the country’s record World Cup goal scorer after Regragui’s firm backing. Regragui, who won 45 caps for Morocco between 2001-2009, started every game during their run to the 2004 Nations Cup final
Appointed in August, Regragui instantly wanted to change the team’s mentality. He delivered a simple message to his squad: anybody anticipating an early exit would not go to Qatar. “If you are a small team, you need to dream and to believe,” he said after Saturday’s quarter-final win over Portugal. “We have elite players – [Hakim] Ziyech for Chelsea, [Noussair] Mazraoui for Bayern, [Achraf] Hakimi for Paris St-Germain – in top clubs and a team that can win World Cup games. “They have shown they are capable of that level of performance – that is important for future generations.”
Before this tournament in Qatar, Morocco had beaten only Portugal (1986) and Scotland (1998) in five World Cups, with their previous best run, a second-round exit, coming 36 years ago. Now, they have beaten three of the world’s top 10 in a month, their on-field displays against Belgium, Spain and Portugal turbo-boosted by off-pitch support and their incredible fortitude shown by conceding just once at the finals despite such illustrious opponents. Regragui’s messages have clearly rubbed off.
“As the coach said, we needed to get rid of the feeling of inferiority we had,” goalkeeper Yassine Bounou said after reaching the semi-finals. “A Moroccan player can face anyone in the world now. We have indeed changed this mentality, and the generation after us know now Moroccan players can create miracles.”
Despite all the investment and the talent in the squad, there was a fundamental problem as the World Cup approached: star winger Ziyech had left international football following a row with then coach Vahid Halilhodzic. Mazraoui had also been sidelined so Lekjaa seized the moment in August, summarily dismissing the Bosnian, then adding Regragui, the missing piece in his ongoing jigsaw who now had the chance to fuel the FMRF’s long-advanced dream
Morocco coach, Regragui has not vastly altered the team – with just three changes between Halilhodzic’s side beaten by Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter finals in January and Regragui’s preferred World Cup line-up. Yet the changes were sizeable, as Mazraoui and Ziyech returned to the fold, while midfielder Azzedine Ounahi – one of four players in the squad from the Mohammed VI Academy – has seized his moment to shine.
The Ziyech saga has been rewarded. He is a winger without a club goal or assist this season, but he has registered the most shots, crosses and assists for Morocco in Qatar – though it is his pressing that may be unrecognisable to Chelsea fans. “We have a clear gameplan and everyone has to work. I don’t think Hakim and [Sofiane] Boufal have ever run as much in their life,” said Regragui after the Portugal win. Regragui, who has brought out the best in Ziyech, regularly visited Morocco as a child, speaks a local dialect and now lives in Casablanca.
Regragui’s approach, typified by his defence’s resolve, his midfield’s energy and his forwards’ flair, is to soak up pressure and hit opponents on the break. Former international rival Didier Drogba says Morocco’s on-field attitude mirrors Regragui’s as a player: “A lot of intensity and technically very smart.” The former Ivory Coast striker added: “He knew how to read the game, anticipate the next phases and close down the opponent. “This is good for all the African managers. It’s a great example of what to do to succeed in the World Cup.”
African coaches have rarely been in demand by European clubs but can Regragui – very much with a foot in both continents – buck that trend after dispatching some of the world’s established heavyweights at this World Cup?
Morocco, history for Africa
Moroccans and largely Africans celebrated a historic moment as Morocco’s senior men’s football team, known as the Atlas Lions, broke an African jinx by reaching the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Atlas Lions of Morocco beat Portugal 1-0 on December 10, 2022, to secure their place among the last four of the global showpiece, a feat no African country had achieved prior. This is not a victory for Morocco only, but a victory for a continent that could only brag about being in the quarter finals of the mundial three times before Qatar 2022.
Immense successes of investment and Morocco’s National Football Federation
Amid the celebrations and jubilations, it is important to reflect on the journey of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation and their investments which are yielding great and visible results for them in every aspect of the game. Both men’s and women’s football in the country have chalked up immense successes this year (2022) and this is as a result of deliberate planning and execution.
The men’s and women’s African Champions League titles are currently held by Moroccan clubs – a historic achievement. The country also holds the men’s Confederations Cup. The women’s national team came second in this year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and qualified for their first ever World Cup, while the country’s men’s home-based squad won the African Nations Championship.
Mohammed Vi Football Complex – The impact of FIFA Accredited Facilities on a nation’s overall football advancement
A major investment that cannot be ignored in the success Moroccan football teams is the ultramodern football facility, “The Mohammed VI Football Complex”. The complex was inaugurated in 2019 and has become the point of reference for many.
The $70 million world class Mohammed VI Football Complex was unveiled three years ago near the country’s capital, Rabat. The football complex covers 30 hectares of land, boasting world-class pitches, a five-star hotel, two three-star hotels, dormitories, the latest facilities and equipment.
The ultra-modern complex, one of the largest in the world, can accommodate the national team A (66 rooms and 4 suites), can house the U23 and U17 teams with a 150-bed capacity and 80 bed-capacity dormitories respectively and goalkeepers with 54 rooms. It has dining and relaxation areas, a 221-seater auditorium to host various events (conferences, film screening), and administrative buildings.
It has been equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, in line with FIFA standards. It has four natural grass football fields, three artificial football fields, a covered football pitch, a hybrid football field, a re-training room that can host futsal matches, an outdoor Olympic-sized pool, two tennis courts, and a Beach Soccer field.
The complex also has a new generation sports and performance medical centre which meets the FIFA standards. The medical centre boasts physiotherapy, stress testing, dentistry, ophthalmology, trauma, psychology, podiatry, nutritional medicine, radiology, ultrasound, electrotherapy, bone densitometry, cryotherapy, and an emergency mobile medical unit.
It is pertinent to mention that the African continent is going to see more of the Moroccan national teams and if others do not invest in the sport the continent loves so much, Morocco will dominate not only the continent but make huge strides in the world of football.
Morocco’s outstanding performance at the ongoing Qatar 2022 can be attributed to a triangular approach that should form the basis of the development of any system, Investment in Facilities, Talents and Qualified Personnel
From the foregoing, it is worth noting to state:
- Good coaching, capital investment in talent centres and scouting have helped Morocco to make history in Qatar.
- The vast continual improvements in the standard of coaching in Morocco have made an important difference.
- Good planning and a vision of where we want to go, likewise for Morocco now – can not be a one-off.
- Morocco had long-term foresight and bravery to appoint a coach unafraid to dream investment.
Furthermore, for a football team to have a great performance in a local, national or international outing, professionalism, belief, being intentional, expertise and planning should always be taken into consideration.
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Oseghe Edward is the Sports Editor of The Nigerian Observer
