A win against South Korea on Sunday (07/30/2023, 6:30 a.m. CEST, in the live stream on sportschau.de) – and Morocco could dream of the round of 16 at the 2023 World Cup. Women’s football has taken an amazing turn in the North African country.
No question: The 0:6 at the start of the World Cup against Germany was a crushing defeat – World Cup debutants Morocco have been brought back to earth, so to speak. Nevertheless, team captain Ghizlane Chebbak found courageous words for herself and her team after the hearty rebuff: “We’ll keep going. We don’t just want to be there at this World Cup. In the end, we want to be the team that might surprise everyone.”
Lots of support in and around Sydney
The North Africans are brave – and they can count on plenty of support in and around Sydney. The Moroccan community in Australia is large. And because the North African team is the first ever Arab team to take part in a women’s World Cup, the local Arab community is showing solidarity and providing collective support.
Systematic football support program
There is plenty of reason for optimism: Morocco’s women’s football has developed enormously in recent years – and that, so to speak, by royal decree. Morocco’s government has not only provided 20 million US dollars in the past four years to promote women’s football in the country. The concerted action followed a systematic football support program that has been running since 2010 and is exemplary for the African continent.
Systematic football support program
At that time, a state-of-the-art training center was opened in Sala Al Jadida, a suburb of the capital Rabat, with the Mohammed VI Football Academy. At royal expense, the best training conditions for 50 young footballers were created on an area of 2.5 square kilometers.
The academy is structurally based on the Moroccan cultural heritage. The shape resembles a traditional douar with a central village square surrounded by five buildings. Each building fulfills a specific function: accommodation, education, medical facility and canteen. A school with ten classrooms and a language and IT room offers a three-stage program for trainees. The courses offered by the academy are supported by the Ministry of Education.
Things have been moving forward since 2010
Four stadiums built according to FIFA guidelines as well as an artificial turf pitch, a small pitch, four changing rooms and a special training area for goalkeepers were implemented in the facility. The medical center consists of a clinic, a physiotherapist’s office and a balneotherapy pool.
The first football trainees were brought together from the region around Rabat in 2010 and have been systematically supported since then. The site was also used as a permanent campus for training camps for the men’s and women’s national teams. Similar systems were then built in Agadir, Tangier and Saidia by 2015.
45,000 spectators at the women’s Africa Cup of Nations final
The successes of these measures are undeniable – and it wasn’t just the men’s World Cup semi-final between Morocco and France that caught the eye. The Moroccan women’s team also made an enormous leap in performance, the “Atlas Lionesses” finished second behind South Africa at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations. More than 45,000 fans attended the final, which took place at the Moulay Abdellah Stadium in the capital, Rabat. With second place, Morocco qualified for a World Cup finals for the first time.
“We are better equipped to spot talent”
The development of Morocco is being followed with great interest in specialist circles. “There’s still work to be done, that’s for sure, but there’s no shortage of talent,” confirms Anthony Rimasson, coach of Morocco’s U17 women’s side, who also qualified for their age-group World Cup for the first time in 2022. “Women’s football is still quite young in Morocco. It took a long time to build up the structures. But today this branch is well organised: we are now better equipped to spot the talent.”
Women’s football in view – Men’s World Cup in mind
It is a development that the world football association FIFA is also following with interest. He likes to award the World Cup tournaments to countries that support and develop football holistically in their country.
The confidence of the Moroccan football world is now immense. So big that after the 2023 Club World Cup was awarded, people are already seriously striving for higher consecration: they finally want to host a major football event, the World Cup is the goal. “We want this organization to be shared between the African continent and the European continent,” said Fouzi Lekjaa, head of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation recently. He expressed his interest in hosting the 2030 edition of the global football flagship.
A men’s World Cup in Morocco would be a great triumph for the North African country. And that would also have something to do with the systematic development of Moroccan women’s football.
Facts about the game
– Matches against each other: none so far
– FIFA Ranking: South Korea 17th / Morocco 72nd
– Best World Cup placement: South Korea – Round of 16 2015 / Morocco – First participation 2023
– Fun Fact: South Korea has the team with the highest average age of all 32 teams: 28.9 years. Haiti has the youngest squad on average (22.3 years), in the DFB team it is 26.3.