For Morocco, France is on the one hand the reigning football world champion to be beaten – but also a former colonial power. Specifically, a large part of the North African country was controlled by France as a protectorate for around four decades in the first half of the 20th century – and this is still an explosive issue today.
In this context, critics repeatedly accuse France of continuing to treat Morocco like a backyard. France counters that it put Morocco on the international industrial map with its investments in the automotive industry, for example, and thus created hundreds of thousands of jobs. There is no question that many French companies play a key role in Morocco, across the economy, media and culture.
According to Berlin’s Tagesspiegel, this interdependence is “unique”, but the balance of power is also shifting away from the football pitch. The newspaper describes Morocco as an emerging regional power that is increasingly “freeing itself from the asymmetrical relationship with Paris”.
“It’s a historic moment”
When Morocco and France meet in the World Cup semifinals on Wednesday, it will be an emotional game, not least for hundreds of thousands of people with Moroccan roots living in France. “If France scores, I will cry. If Morocco scores, I will cry,” a Franco-Moroccan woman told Le Parisien newspaper.
If France coach Didier Deschamps has his way, it’s completely unclear who will be the winner on Wednesday at the Al Bayt Stadium in the Qatari coastal city of al-Khour. “It’s a historic moment,” said Deschamps, who could defend a world title with France for the first time like Brazil in 1962 and thus also go down in sporting history.
Dozens of special flights to Doha
France’s national football team will receive support in the stadium from President Emmanuel Macron – and Morocco will probably receive support from the majority of the around 70,000 spectators expected in the stadium. The Moroccan airline Air Maroc alone planned around 30 special flights in the run-up to the game to bring Moroccan fans to Doha. “They have a lot of support, it will be very loud,” predicted Deschamps.
Supported by raucous fans, Morocco have defeated several tournament favorites en route to the semi-finals alongside Belgium, Spain and Portugal, and steadily grew their following as they progressed to the semi-finals. In Qatar, the Moroccan selection has long since become a symbol. After the early exit of the hosts, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, the “Lions of Atlas” carry the hopes of the Arab fans. “Qatar falls in love with Morocco,” wrote the newspaper Le Parisien.
“The Qatari ruling family is celebrating the World Cup as a historic departure for the Arab world,” says the “Frankfurter Rundschau” (“FR”). Whether “in the Middle East, Africa or the decolonized world” – people everywhere are celebrating the Moroccan team’s run of success so far, and it’s no longer just about “the good sporting feelings”, according to the Washington Post.
“For many people, the Moroccan team is waging a symbolic war,” said the newspaper, according to Middle East expert Monica Marks from New York University in Abu Dhabi. This locates a “worldwide embrace of Morocco as a pioneer of the post-colonial world” – but with reference to Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara, according to Marks, the topic is probably “a bit more complicated”.
“Make the whole world happy”
“We make our people, our continent and the Arab world happy. We make the whole world happy,” said Morocco’s team boss Walid Regragui after successfully reaching the semifinals. Like Regragui, a number of other players in the Moroccan team were born in France. Others come from Canada, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Before the World Cup, according to Regragui, there were discussions about the professionals from abroad who allegedly did not “like or love” Morocco. But the World Cup games have shown that every “Moroccan is a Moroccan”, as Regragui added here.
“Identification with Morocco remains high, which of course is also due to the racism that people from the region in France often face,” said Jakob Krais, Professor of Modern and Contemporary North African Cultural History at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich.
Memory of France against Algeria
“Fundamentally, fourth place at the World Cup would be a historic success for Morocco and the entire Arab world.” According to Krais, however, the game on Wednesday could be used as a “vehicle” in the socially disadvantaged French banlieues to relieve the “general frustration about their situation”.
Morocco’s victories to date have been euphorically celebrated from Paris to Brussels to Milan. There were also riots. Accordingly, the security forces are preparing for the night after the semifinals in Qatar. France is mobilizing 10,000 police officers, half of whom are to be deployed in the Paris area, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced. The boulevard Champs-Elysees, where thousands of fans had previously celebrated the progress of both teams, should be freely accessible.
In 2001, during the first game between France and Algeria, which, like Morocco, is linked to France, dozens of Algerian fans stormed the pitch of the St. Denis stadium near Paris, provoking a scandalous abandonment. There have been five test matches between Morocco and France so far.