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Marrakech – Two players from Morocco’s national beach volleyball team disappeared in the Netherlands shortly after they landed, both of them under the age of 18. The pair, identified as Bayadi and Al-Bayari, had traveled to compete in the Under-18 Beach Volleyball World Championship. The tournament ran in The Hague from July 8 to July 12.
The two teenagers play for the clubs Moghreb Tetouan and Fath Union Sport of Rabat. They were dispatched to represent the kingdom, yet they slipped out of sight almost immediately after reaching Dutch soil.
The Moroccan outlet Al Ittihad first reported the case on Monday. The newspaper wrote that the players “disappeared from view” the moment they set foot in the Netherlands, and it framed the episode as “a scandal that the federation kept quiet,” particularly from the media.
The Dutch volleyball federation, Nevobo, confirmed the disappearance to De Telegraaf on Tuesday. A Nevobo spokesperson recounted that the two boys left their hotel with their private belongings soon after checking in.
“According to other players from the Moroccan delegation, they posted a message on Instagram that same day that they were in the city center of The Hague,” the spokesperson told the paper.
When the pair did not return to the hotel and failed to appear at the official registration, the Moroccan delegation alerted the Dutch federation. Nevobo then turned to the authorities. “We called in the police,” the spokesperson explained. “They tried to contact the parents of those boys, but as far as we know they were unable to reach them.”
Nevobo representatives later learned of a suspicion that the two had traveled on to relatives in Spain.
The delegation carried no official federation functionary. It was accompanied instead by a former volleyball international, identified by Al Ittihad as Rahma, a former player for the Royal Armed Forces club. Morocco competed at the championship with pairs in both the men’s and women’s draws.
The case is not the first of its kind under the current federation leadership. In 2021, three players from Morocco’s Under-21 indoor volleyball team also disappeared around a world championship, that time held in Italy. The earlier episode drew large-scale protests from parents and sharp criticism of how the team was supervised.
According to observers cited by Al Ittihad, the recurrence points to the unfitness of some federation members to serve as heads of delegations. The outlet warned that repeated cases could strip national volleyball of young talent capable of raising the level of a sport already burdened by weak results and declining performance.
In the Netherlands, the affair is regarded as a serious embarrassment for the Moroccan volleyball federation, which stands accused of trying to bury the story.
