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On the front page of the press, this Thursday, December 15, the qualification of the Blues for the final of the Football World Cup, after their victory against Morocco, 2 to 0. New revelations on the “Qatargate”: after Qatar , Morocco is also suspected of corruption in the heart of Europe. And the most unexpected calendar of the year.
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On the front page of the French press, of course, the qualification of the Blues for the final of the Football World Cup, after their victory against Morocco, 2 to 0.
“A capital feat before a huge meeting”: The team, the sports daily, savors the “final flight” of the Blues against a Morocco “full of bravery”. A feat accomplished, in particular, thanks to the magnificent volley from Theo Hernandez, from the 5thth minute. The France team will defend their title on Sunday against Argentina. The fourth World Cup final for the Blues in 24 years. “We’re still there!”, and Le Parisien/Today in France is delighted with the “delicious habit” offered by the Blues. The newspaper does not forget to salute, in passing, “the considerable courage and abnegation” of the Atlas Lions. The French dream of a “third star”, and The Marseillaise is in a lyrical mood: “It’s a quasi-truth: winter skies are not summer skies. But there are still stars visible all year round from the same place on Earth. They respond to the name of “circumpolar” stars, and the one the Blues are looking for in Qatar is perhaps one of them”. For that, it will be necessary to defeat the Argentina of Lionel Messi. A fight that promises to be “titanic”, according to the sports edition of the Daily Express. “Now bring on Messi”: “Now it’s Messi’s turn”, headlines the British tabloid.
After an incredible campaign, the Moroccan national team finally failed at the foot of the final. “After an epic duel, the long experience of the Blues got the better of the ambition of the Atlas Lions”, but The morning, a Moroccan daily, judges that the national team is leaving “with its head held high”. “The Lions have definitely demonstrated their ability to stand up to the world giants and this dramatic end is perhaps only the beginning of a new era for Moroccan football”, hopes the newspaper. Beyond Morocco, the epic of the Lions has inspired the entire African continent, and the Arab world, which salutes, like the Nationalthe Emirati newspaper, “the pride of the Lions” in defeat.
Morocco will not be world champion this time. But in a column published by The world, Christiane Dardé, whose husband, historian Maati Monjib, lives on probation in Morocco and cannot leave the country, hopes that the hope aroused by Moroccan footballers will also awaken “the dream that Morocco will one day become champion in the field of freedoms and human rights”. The sociologist recalls that “cases of attacks on freedom of expression have multiplied in Morocco in recent years”; that in 2017, hundreds of young people from the Rif, in the north of the country, were arrested, and for some tortured, like their leader Nasser Zefzafi, sentenced to heavy prison terms, for having organized peaceful demonstrations and above all anti -regime; that great critics of monarchical power, such as Taoufik Bouachrine and Soulaimane Raissouni, also convicted, have been detained for years. And that investigative journalist Omar Radi was sentenced again this year to six years in prison, after a trial deemed unfair by human rights associations. Omar Radi, to whom the NGO Reporters Without Borders awarded its Independence Prize three days ago.
Morocco in turn finds itself in the sights of Belgian investigators in the so-called “Qatargate” affair, a vast operation of alleged corruption, involving several European parliamentarians. According to Daily factthe former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri as well as another MEP, Andrea Cozzolino and his parliamentary assistant, Francesco Giorgi, are suspected of having been “in the pay of Morocco”, of having intervened politically with MEPs in favor of Qatar, but also of the Cherifian kingdom, against payment. The Republic affirms that this alleged system of corruption would have been orchestrated by the Moroccan intelligence services, whose “interference activity” would have had the aim of influencing MEPs on the Western Sahara dossier and that of immigration. The newspaper cites two names: Yassine Mansouri, the head of Moroccan intelligence and Abderrahim Atmoun, Morocco’s ambassador to Poland, both suspected of having been the kingpins of this interference. According to the newspaper, the money would have been paid in the same way as the funds suspected of coming from Qatar: either via the accounts of an NGO “Fight Impunity”, “Combatre l’impunité”, founded by Panzeri, or in cash, or even in the form of “gifts”.
About gifts. The end of the year approaching, it’s time for New Year’s gifts and calendars. You have certainly bought that of the garbage collectors and firefighters. But have you thought about the Vatican calendar? According to The Times, the Calendario Romano is a must-have in tourist shops and kiosks in the Eternal City, sold for the modest sum of 7 euros, and signed Piero Pazzi, a Venetian photographer, who says he photographed very photogenic priests, in the streets of Rome, or during religious parades, such as that of Semana Santa in Seville. The Gods of the Stadium just have to watch out…
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