Clearly, the love affair between Moroccans and towels does not seem to be over. We thought that the towel theft controversy had stopped after the final of the African Cup of Nations, won by Senegal against Morocco (1-0, ap) on January 18…. but that is not the case.
Exactly a week later, on Sunday evening, a new lunar session was observed by spectators on the edge of the field during the CAF Cup group match between the Moroccans of Wydad Casablanca and the Congolese of AS Maniema Union (1-0).
On videos filmed from the stands of the Mohammed V stadium, we see a member of the Moroccan team trying to chase his counterparts from the Democratic Republic of Congo team who were holding a towel in their hands, before being visibly reprimanded by the Congolese assistant. From another angle, the latter runs to finally put the famous, coveted towel next to his goalkeeper’s goals. A vain attempt but which had the gift of awakening the “napkin gate” of recent days.
This new episode comes only a week after the equally absurd scenes observed during the CAN final, tinged with numerous controversies. Among them, the replacement goalkeeper of the Teranga Lions Yehvann Diouf was pushed to the ground while trying to protect the towel of his teammate Edouard Mendy, holder in the cages. At other times during the match, Ismael Saibari and Achraf Hakimi were seen throwing or trying to steal that same towel.
Already during the semi-final against Nigeria, the Atlas Lions had been involved in a previous story of towel theft. Two episodes that amazed a lot of people, including Jérôme Alonzo. “What serious nation lets this happen twice?” » the guard had hallucinated.
