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Join on Telegram Rabat – The president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), Fouzi Lekjaa, said that the door to the Atlas Lions, Morocco’s national football team, is open to all Moroccan players.
Lekjaa made his remarks during the FRMF Steering Committee held on Tuesday in Sale, near Rabat.
He emphasized the importance of overcoming differences prior to the 2022 World Cup, which will take place in November in Qatar.
“Everyone’s objective is to prepare well for the Qatar 2022 World Cup,” said the FRMF president, stressing that the door of the national team is “open to all Moroccan players.”
Lekjaa’s remarks come amid an internal crisis within the national team. Key players for the Atlas Lions, such as Hakim Ziyech and Noussair Mezraoui, have signaled a marked reluctance to come back to the national squad because of a months-long rift with Vahid Halilhodzic, the head coach of the Moroccan team.
The players have been outspoken regarding misinformation from the “leadership” about their commitment to their country.
“Their actions have made it impossible for me to continue to be part of the team,” Ziyech said in March.
Mazraoui made a similar remark in March, saying: “Unfortunately the coach didn’t have time to meet and discuss the situation that created, and [the impact on] me as a player of el Motakhab (sic) [national team]. Meeting the head coach and clearing all the misconceptions around me is of utmost importance to me as a professional athlete and simply as a human being.”
In his Tuesday statement, the FRMF president said that the time has come to overcome all differences; he announced that he will hold a meeting with Halilhodzic at the end of this month after he returns from vacation.
The goal of the meeting will be “to establish a clear roadmap for a good preparation of the future competitions, in particular the qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup,” Lekjaa noted.
He recalled that the national team has been through a rough transition phase, but it still managed to qualify for both the World Cup and the previous Africa Cup of Nations which took place in Cameroon.
Commenting on the level of the Atlas Lions, the FRMF President cited the national team’s performance in the latest FIFA rankings as proof that it has made considerable progress in recent months.
The most recent FIFA rankings placed Morocco’s Atlas Lions 24th worldwide and second in Africa, behind Senegal’s Teranga Lions.
