Morocco, far from alone at being ousted far sooner than expected from the Africa Cup of Nations, made many millions of friends in Ivory Coast. But that was chiefly because of an unintended favour.
By beating Zambia in their final group match, Morocco ensured a flawed Ivory Coast team squeaked into the knockouts at Zambia’s expense, as the best of the third-placed teams in the last chance saloon.
Ivorian gratitude continues, noisily, now that the hosts have eliminated champions Senegal and no longer see Morocco along any possible path to an unlikely title. Africa’s No 1 ranked team are out. “It’s been a tournament with a lot of surprises,” said Morocco’s manager Walid Regragui after his team’s shock 2-0 defeat to South Africa in San Pedro.
South Africa concentrated their giant-killing into 90 carefully prepared minutes, and into the efficient execution of two of the few goalscoring chances they created. “Congratulations to them,” said Regragui, “they played the sort of game you need to play to beat us.”
Regragui, the master planner who 13 months ago was bringing his players home to huge cheering crowds as World Cup semi-finalists, spoke with dignified composure, taking full responsibility for the exit.
He has not always been so self-possessed during the last three weeks. Regragui was on the touchline on Tuesday night only because a ban, imposed by CAF, the body in charge of Afcon, for his angry match day one confrontation with DR Congo captain Chancel Mbemba, had been reduced on appeal.
Morocco have made enemies as well as gaining the friendship of indebted Ivorian fans. When Tanzania’s head coach, the Algerian Adel Amrouche, said out loud that Morocco’s strong influence with Caf extends to “choosing their referees”, he lost his job and landed a fine and a ban.
If the accusation had no verifiable substance to it whatsoever, he was skirting around a general theme: a perception Morocco stride around the continent’s football landscape with an entitled bearing.
Their football has certainly earned it. The World Cup run, with Belgium, Spain and Portugal all defeated, set a new bar for African and Arab achievement. The national women’s team were similar pathfinders at their World Cup last year, reaching the knockout phase.
CAF are obliged to recognise the beneficial impact globally of Morocco, hosts-elect of the next Afcon, co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup, site of some of the continent’s best stadiums and, in the Mohammed VI Academy, one of its best-appointed talent nurseries.
Three of its graduates, Nayef Aguerd, of the English Premier League’s West Ham United, Azzedine Ounahi, of Ligue 1 Marseille and Youssef En-Neysri, of Europa League experts Sevilla, were among the Atlas Lions tamed by a crafty South African side built largely around players employed in Africa.
If Aguerd won several of his duels with South Africa’s rangy centre-forward Evidence Makgopa, he came out second best to Themba Zwane in the lead-up to Makgoba’s opening goal.
En-Nesyri, a hero of Qatar 2022, was a blunt weapon up front and while Achraf Hakimi threatened South Africa’s left flank, the outcome slipped beyond Morocco’s reach when, at 1-0 down and with 85 minutes on the clock, the Paris Saint-Germain star struck a penalty against the crossbar.
“The penalty came at a key moment for us,” said Regragui. “Missing it, I think, put doubts in the players’ minds.”
Regragui assumed “all the responsibility” for the upset, although he was missing key allies, notably the injured Hakim Ziyech and Sofiane Boufal.
Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazraoui, returning from significant lay-off to the left-back position that is not his natural one but which Regragui has mostly made work for the player and the team, had a difficult night. And Morocco, so often at their best conceding possession, were outthought by a South Africa content to play on the counter-attack, to contain and tire Regragui’s men.
The retreat is not terminal. Morocco will stage the next Afcon sensing that, if some of the totems of Regragui’s era-defining team may not be there – captain Romain Saiss is 36 – “young players have come in and we expect better things ahead from them.” Amine Adli and Abde Ezzalzouli, 23 and 22, are not like-for-like successors to Boufal and Ziyech, but they give Morocco zest on the wings.
Nor is it so isolating being an ejected favourite at this tournament. Morocco join the great caravan heading north from a disastrous Afcon for the Mena nations.
Tunisia, who beat France at the 2022 World Cup, lost to Namibia and finished bottom of their group. Algeria, the 2019 champions, lost to Mauritania, the one Maghreb contestant who can claim a successful Afcon expedition, and left after three winless games. Egypt’s defensive nous deserted them as damagingly as Mohamed Salah’s fitness did.
“It’s been a tough tournament for everybody,” said Regragui, whose own presence, with the country whose football he elevated higher than any coach ever has, at the next, home Afcon is uncertain.
He set the bar at this one at the semi-finals. Falling so far short may yet persuade him he is no longer the best guide for a squad brought suddenly down to earth.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
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Emirates Cricket Board Women’s T10
ECB Hawks v ECB Falcons
Monday, April 6, 7.30pm, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
The match will be broadcast live on the My Sports Eye Facebook page
Hawks
Coach: Chaitrali Kalgutkar
Squad: Chaya Mughal (captain), Archara Supriya, Chamani Senevirathne, Chathurika Anand, Geethika Jyothis, Indhuja Nandakumar, Kashish Loungani, Khushi Sharma, Khushi Tanwar, Rinitha Rajith, Siddhi Pagarani, Siya Gokhale, Subha Srinivasan, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish
Falcons
Coach: Najeeb Amar
Squad: Kavisha Kumari (captain), Almaseera Jahangir, Annika Shivpuri, Archisha Mukherjee, Judit Cleetus, Ishani Senavirathne, Lavanya Keny, Mahika Gaur, Malavika Unnithan, Rishitha Rajith, Rithika Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Shashini Kaluarachchi, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Vaishnave Mahesh
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
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Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
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The specs
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Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The National's picks
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
