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Rabat – The controversial Algerian channel Ennahar TV has once again engaged in Morocco-bashing, releasing a video on November 27 accusing the country and its national football team of “drug trafficking.”
Ennahar TV, whose managing director was sentenced last year to ten years in prison for corruption, is no stranger to controversy and Morocco-bashing.
From publishing cartoons of King Mohammed VI to hurling unfounded accusations against Morocco in a wide range of issues or areas, the website clickbaity Algerian channel has been at the forefront of accusations of all kinds to tarnish Morocco’s reputation.
This time, as the football world continues to applaud the historic and odds-defying journey of Morocco’s Atlas Lions at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Algerian tabloid resorts to dismissing the inspirational legacy of the Moroccan national team by provocatively suggesting that their success on the world stage was made possible by the trafficking of “hashish” and “cocaine.”
Claiming that “the exploits of the Moroccan national team and the trophies won by Wydad are tainted by zetla (hashish) money,” the Algerian channel used completely unsubstantiated allegations to attack Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF).
Ennahar TV further claimed that these accusations are judicial confessions from a Hashish trafficker known by the nicknames “Africa’s Escobar” and “financial baron.”
However, the video lacked sufficient details about the original source, the identity of the person in question, or other information that would reveal further corroborating details.
Read also: Strategic Paranoia: The Banality of Algeria’s Moroccan Obsession
One of the Algerian channel’s dubious stories concerned Said Nassiri, President of the Casablanca-based football club Wydad, who allegedly received 3.5 million euros from an unidentified source.
The Algerian channel also accused Lekjaa of trying to discredit his partner, who was also not named, in the “football corruption” scandal and of avoiding appearing with him since the “Baron” was arrested.
Despite failing to produce any convincing evidence, it stuck to its outrageous accusations. Perhaps even more outrageous, the channel claimed that in 2017, Lekjaa “offered” Moroccan TV anchor Bouchra Ddeau as a sexual gift to former CAF president Ahmed Ahmed in exchange for several favors from African soccer’s governing body.
Moroccan internet users have shrugged off the Algerian channel’s accusations, pointing out that Morocco has long been the favorite punching bag of both Algeria’s regime and the Algerian press.
Having perfected its sense of siege mentality to explain away decades of political, social, and economic failures or challenges, the Algerian media and political class has made Morocco-bashing a tool of galvanizing and distracting the Algerian public.
Meanwhile, as they dismiss Ennahar TV’s unevidenced claims and accusations, many Moroccan netizens have made the case that while Moroccan football continues to gain momentum worldwide, the Algerian regime is clearly “admitting its failure” to develop the country’s football scene.
