Morocco twice demanded a penalty in the game for third place, but these calls are not heeded. While the footballers are pressuring the Qatari referee, coach Walid Regragui finds conciliatory words. The World Cup should only be the beginning. For Morocco and for Africa.
The most successful World Cup in soccer history for an African team ended in loud anger. “FIFA Mafia”, it echoed through the Chalifa International Stadium in Qatar, when the world association president Gianni Infantino honored the winner of the small final there. It wasn’t the Moroccans. They lost the game for third place against Croatia deservedly 1:2 (1:2). But even though they went as far as any representative from their continent had ever done at this World Cup, everyone was pissed at the moment.
The Moroccan players pressed the referee Abdulrahman Al Jassim after the final whistle. The vast majority of the Moroccan fans in the 44,137 spectators turned their anger on Infantino, not least because a referee with little international experience from the World Cup host country Qatar was allowed to referee this game, which was so important for them. According to reports, the FIFA President was even verbally abused by Moroccan players on the way to the dressing room. And all because Al Jassim had denied the big surprise team of this World Cup two supposed penalties in the final stages.
The only one who kept his cool in the tumult was Morocco coach Walid Regragui. He shook hands with the referee fairly. On the one hand, at least these two contested decisions were justifiable. On the other hand, the image of his team, which is so successful and celebrated so often, is very important to Regragui at this World Cup. It should not receive a scratch after the last of seven games in Qatar.
“We’re always disappointed when we lose a game. If you sometimes overreact after a game, that can happen,” said the 47-year-old. “My players are very ambitious, it wasn’t a lack of respect.” Nevertheless: Pressing the referee after the game was “not the Moroccan way”.
The Moroccans conceded their only defeats at this World Cup in the last two games. When it came to qualifying for the final and then the bronze medal on Saturday. This medal was very important to both teams. For comparatively smaller soccer nations like Croatia and Morocco, it is significantly more important than for the English, Brazilians or Dutch, who were involved in this “small final” at the two previous World Cup tournaments.
Josko Gvardiol and Mislav Orsic gave the Croatians the lead twice. Only once did the Moroccans come back through Achraf Dari. At the end of the tournament, it was too much of everything for them: too many games, too many important players absent, “too tired”, as Regragui said. The coach, who has only been in office since August, was nevertheless certain: “When we wake up tomorrow, we will realize what we achieved at this World Cup,” said Regragui. “If you had told me before the World Cup: Morocco is one of the top four teams in the world – I would have rejected that.”
From the very beginning of this tournament, the French-born ex-professional wanted to do more than just coach Morocco. He always wanted to set an example that African football as a whole can do more and is further than is often seen in other parts of the world. Only three weeks ago, Regragui was still talking about surviving the preliminary round – and now about a completely different goal.
“We showed that in Africa we work hard and develop. I’m sure that one day an African team will win the World Cup,” he said. “Other African teams will want to follow our example. And we will have more experience in 2026. We’re getting further and further, step by step. Even in our country they didn’t believe in us. But we proved the opposite.”
At the end of his press conference, Regragui stood up and thanked everyone in the room. With the journalists, with the employees. He didn’t rant like his players after the final whistle. His sentence when saying goodbye to this World Cup was: “Long live Africa!”