FIFA Club World Cup Opening Stirs Moroccans’ Discontent

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA

Casablanca- A “mediocre” inauguration show; delirious hooligans hastily climbing the stadium walls; the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation misses the opening ceremony—could the FIFA Clubs World Cup 2013 in Morocco get any messier?

“This is utterly a chaotic opening ceremony,” reads one of the numerous comments on the video of Clubs World Cup’s opening ceremony in Agadir’s majestic stadium.

“Couldn’t they just try to be more creative than this? This is pathetic!” read another comment on the video.

Seemingly, reactions to the opening ceremony of the Clubs World Cup echoed a predominant discontent at the “lack” of creativity it demonstrated.

Various performers, representing different folkloric trends, toured the stadium in a random fashion while playing folk instrument and singing.

“The choice of Moroccan folk music as the only insight into a nation as great as Morocco is really ridiculous,” criticized one of the comments on the opening video.

“The opening of the world cup was an additional missed opportunity for Morocco to innovate, optimize its assets, and put forward its culture,” Lamia Bazir a Moroccan graduate student at Columbia University told MWN.

Other reactions lamented the fact that organizers of the event did not take full advantage of the opening ceremony to convey a more “grandiose” image of the kingdom to the world, since the opening ceremony was broadcasted live on many international channels.

“How do we expect to stand a chance against other competing nations that intend to host the upcoming World Cup of nations while we seem to take the current event less seriously?” wondered another commenter, shedding light on one of the potential impingements of the “mediocre” opening ceremony.

However, the Minister of Youth and Sports seems to have a different opinion on the opening ceremony of the Clubs World Cup 2013.

“It was not an opening ceremony, but rather a simple demonstration, a welcome session, a show to which FIFA has only allowed ten minutes,” Minister of Youth and Sports, Mohamed Ouzzine was quoted as saying by Le360 in response to the wave of discontent aroused by the opening ceremony of the Clubs World Cup in Agadir.

“We have planned something big, but FIFA has insisted that the stadium field be kept intact. There are people who want to politicize this, but they are really wrong,” he added.