The Morocco spent lavishly in the organization of the CAN 2025 African Cup of Nations. In the end, it was disillusionment. Not only did his national team not win the trophy, but the tournament produced the exact opposite of the desired effect in terms of prestige image.
CAN 2025 confirmed the reputation that the kingdom drags in the world, that of a country accustomed to cheating, blackmail, corruption and low blows, and not only in sport. And as always, it ended very badly, that is to say with a resounding scandal which tarnished the image of the country.
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If the whole world welcomed the victory of Senegal (1-0) Sunday January 18 at the end of a chaotic final, it is firstly because its opponent of the day, Morocco, has, since the start of the tournament, used unhealthy methods to win, without even bothering to respect the forms.
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Morocco confirms its reputation as a cheater
The Moroccans were favored by the referees in an indisputable way. Many blatant penalties were not called, against Mali in the first round, Tanzania in the round of 16 and Cameroon in the quarters.
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In the final, Senegal was unfairly deprived of a valid goal at the end of the match and then punished with a penalty which should not have been whistled because the action was preceded by a flagrant off-time which was not whistled.
Morocco and the president of its federation Fouzi Lekjaa came close to achieving their goal. But as Internet users around the world say, “divine justice” has manifested itself, implacable.
The very obtaining of the organization of this CAN 2025 was tainted by suspicions of shenanigans by the same Lekjaa, to whom great influence is attributed within the executive office of the African Football Confederation (CAF), to the detriment of Algeria’s candidacy.
In politics and diplomacy, the Morocco uses the same methods and he has been caught several times red-handed. In December 2022, a huge scandal broke out in Brussels when Belgian justice dismantled a corruption network of European deputies, paid to influence European policy on certain issues, such as that of Western Sahara, and turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in the kingdom.
Initially called “Qatargate” by the press, the scandal was quickly renamed “Qatargate”.Moroccogate“The investigators concluded that the vast network of corruption was set up by Moroccan services, and that the Qataris only stepped into the breach.
In 2021, the kingdom of Mohammed VI was seriously questioned by a consortium of international media which revealed a vast spying system set up by Moroccan services.
Thousands of telephone numbers of Moroccan opponents and foreign journalists and officials, including heads of state, were tapped via Israeli spyware Pegasus.
Among the targeted phones, that of French President Emmanuel Macron, hence the long crisis which ensued between the two countries. In France, Moroccan services are entangled in several other scandals. In 2014, Abdellatif Hamouchi, head of the DST and the Moroccan police, narrowly escaped arrest in Paris.
Sport, politics, diplomacy: there is something rotten in the Kingdom of Morocco
With Spain, the Moroccans used “migratory bomb” blackmail to force Madrid to align with their theses on the Western Sahara issue.
Steadily, thousands of migrants were allowed to invade the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla until the government of Pedro Sanchez gave in in March 2022.
Since then, any attempt to approach the two enclaves has been bloodily repressed, as in June 2022, when around forty migrants were killed in front of the fences in Ceuta.
Internally, scandals of corruption, inequalities or attacks on freedoms are daily occurrences. To deceive the world with the image of a modern monarchy, the Moroccan government has opted for a policy of prestige that is as costly as it is ineffective.
This CAN 2025 is the perfect illustration of this. Billions were spent so that in the end, such a pitiful image was sent back to the world. To revisit Shakespeare, there is something rotten in the kingdom of Morocco.
