Rabat – Mohamed El-Haidawi, a politician affiliated with Morocco’s ruling political party the National Rally of Independents (RNI), is facing the party’s disciplinary committee over charges of illegally selling World Cup tickets.
According to an RNI statement quoted in converging media reports, El-Haidawi is facing disciplinary actions after the surfacing of evidence suggesting that the politician has been capitalizing on the shortage of tickets to Morocco’s World Cup matches for personal gain.
El-Haidawi’s alleged behavior “damages the image of the Moroccan national team,” RNI said in the statement, adding that he has been referred to the Regional Disciplinary and Arbitration Committee in the Marrakech-Safi region for further investigations.
On social media, many have been sharing audio notes from conversations El-Haidawi allegedly had with fans for the selling of overpriced tickets to Moroccan World Cup matches.
In addition to his senior position within Morocco’s ruling party, El-Haidawi is also the president of Olympic Club Safi, a local football club.
While the politician has “admitted” the authenticity of the audio recording about selling World Cup tickets, local reports have suggested, he claims that it was taken out of context.
Multiple reports have quoted El-Haidawi as saying that “the person who leaked it did not publish the content of the first call.”
The politician told a local media outlet: “This person called me at the beginning and asked me for two tickets, I told him that I did not have them, and suggested to him, to help, that he buy them from another person who sells tickets for 6,000 dirhams per ticket.” He argued that the recording was shared to “tarnish” his image, insisting that he was only “mediating between the two parties.”
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