As soon as the referee whistle announced the end of the World Cup semi-final match, with France’s victory over Morocco on Wednesday, there was much talk on social media about a “conspiracy theory”, whose owners say that the “Atlas Lions” were its victims.
On the other hand, others downplayed the allegations of “selling the match” before its start, noting that rumors of conspiracies are not new in the world of football.
The “absence of the Emir of Qatar” from the Morocco-France match attracted the interest of the “conspiracy theorists”, and he was the one who used to attend the Moroccan national team’s matches in the previous rounds, raising the kingdom’s flag, according to what they are circulating.
This tweet swears that the outcome of the match was decided before its start, and claims that “the way the Moroccan national team plays and the game plan” raises doubts.
By God, I will repeat it and repeat it. By God, France won before the start of the match. Do you not notice the absence of the Emir of Qatar, who attended all the matches of Morocco and did not attend a match as for France? Then Macron, would he have attended if he had not had guarantees before the match, then the way Morocco played and the plan he entered with, except you are surprised by it, pic.twitter.com/5D5YZU4BM1
– Hassan Hassan (@ HassanH62508580) December 15, 2022
I wonder, what is the reason for the absence of the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad, from the France-Morocco match in the semi-finals, and he is one of the biggest supporters of the Arab teams since the beginning of the tournament?
Pictures of the Emir of Qatar after Morocco qualified for the semi-finals. #Morocco _ France #World_Cup_Qatar_2022 pic.twitter.com/whcokdsCra
– Ahmed Fawzi – Ahmed fawzi (@AFYemeni) December 14, 2022
And the Qatar News Agency had announced, on Wednesday, that the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, met with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, at Al Bayt Stadium, where the match took place between the Moroccan and French teams.
His Highness the Amir meets with the President of the friendly French Republic, who is visiting the country to attend part of the championship matches #world Cup FIFA #Qatar2022 at Al Bayt Stadium #Qena #Diameter #France pic.twitter.com/FzTmvODROS
– Qatar News Agency (@QatarNewsAgency) December 14, 2022
Away from Doha, enthusiastic fans found a connection between France’s victory in the match and the arrival of a French minister to Morocco, in conjunction with the match, and her announcement of her country’s renewed support for Morocco in the Western Sahara issue.
On Friday, Catherine Colonna, who is on an official visit to Rabat, announced the end of the visa crisis that has disturbed diplomatic relations between Morocco and France for more than a year.
This tweet supports the suspicions of the “conspiracy theorists”, indicating that there is a relationship between simultaneous events, without providing evidence of the validity of his opinion.
He says, “In one day, 1 announced the organization of the Club World Cup in Morocco.
2 Ending the visa crisis between Morocco and Morocco.
3 France confirms that it will not change its position in support of the autonomy initiative.
in one day :
1 Announcing the organization of the Club World Cup in Morocco.
2 Ending the visa crisis between Morocco and Morocco.
3 France’s assertion that it will not change its position in support of the autonomy initiative.
(The conspiracy theorists have something to reinforce their position ????)— Hassan ⛥ (@Hassan_khalile) December 16, 2022
Is it a coincidence?
???? France supports Morocco on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara ????????
???? The visa problem will be resolved once and for all with France ????????
???? Morocco is organizing #clubs World Cup February 2023 ???? pic.twitter.com/4tAowuBZX0— ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? December 16, 2022
France announces the end of the visa crisis with Morocco
My Moroccan brothersThe team’s match was sold out pic.twitter.com/aW1z6Eytjc
– ghita????????✌️????????✌️???????? (@ghita966932621) December 16, 2022
And the “conspiracy theory” revived on Friday, after the Swiss President of the International Federation (FIFA), Gianni Infantino, announced in a press conference that Morocco would host the FIFA Club World Cup between February 1 and 11, 2023.
It will be the third time that Morocco hosts the Club World Cup after 2013 and 2014, noting that the last version was hosted by the UAE and Chelsea crowned it.
The conspiracy theory was not limited to the Moroccan public, but was spread by Arab activists, and its resonance reached others outside the Arab world.
And this young man repeated in French the same questions about why Macron attended the Morocco-France match, claiming, according to the accompanying translation of the video, that the French president knew the outcome of the match in advance.
The owner of the video expressed his surprise at not counting “two penalty kicks” for Morocco.
However, on the other hand, there are those who believe that losing Morocco is normal in football.
Losing Morocco is normal, the idea of antiquity
The absence of the Emir of Qatar, perhaps because of the propaganda that was promoted by the French media in order to tarnish Qatar’s image before the World Cup. Qatar’s refusals to increase gas supplies to France
The visit of the Minister of France: Hadi Rah is a country, okay, a corral, if he came to enter, it will definitely be a program before the match ????— Oum Anfale???? (@Oumanfale) December 16, 2022
As for the owner of this tweet, he calls on the football fans to rise to the level of the Moroccan national team and move away from the “conspiracy theory”, noting that it is not the first time that such rumors have spread, but rather it has previously accompanied other sporting events in Morocco.
The national team has risen to a high level.
We would like the public to keep up with the level and stay away from the conspiracy theory and away from the theory of compound ignorance.
“Click Whores”
Really French politics intervened
Indeed, in 2004, Tunisia and Morocco understood, voting for the title.
Indeed, Brazil 98 played in Balani with Norway.— Don (@don10ouss) December 15, 2022
The Moroccan journalist, Abdallah al-Turabi, wrote in a Facebook post that the worst “what afflicted us in the public debate” was the “conspiracy theory.” He said, “The conspiracy theorist comes up with questions inspired by his imagination, without any evidence, and asks you to answer them!!”
On Thursday, the Moroccan Football Federation announced that it had lodged an official protest with the International Federation of the Game regarding an “arbitral injustice” it was exposed to in the match against France (0-2) Wednesday in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup Qatar, according to what France Press reported.
Morocco was hoping to crown its historic career in the World Cup in Qatar by reaching the final, but the adventure ended at the round of four, losing to France, the defending champion, 0-2.
On Saturday, the Atlas Lions will face Croatia to determine the third and fourth places in the tournament.