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Rabat – Moroccan football club Raja of Casablanca announced on Thursday that the total number of COVID-19 cases among its players and staff has reached 15.
The club said today in a tweet that Raja’s latest round of testing revealed six more infections. This brings the team’s total to 14 cases among players and one case among administrative staff.
Raja of Casablanca previously confirmed six COVID-19 cases among players after its first-leg match against Zamalek of Egypt as part of the semi-final of the CAF Champions League on Sunday.
It announced two other cases before the game, meaning the team had reported a total of eight cases as of October 18.
Raja lost against the Egyptian team (0-1) at the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca.
On October 20, the Moroccan team held a meeting with Faouzi Lakjaa, President of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), and the organizers of the competition to clarify the health situation within the squad.
The meeting resulted in Raja filing a request before the CAF organizing commission to request a postponement of the away match in Egypt, given the health condition of Raja’s footballers.
Although several football news outlets announced that CAF decided to postpone the game to October 31, the African confederation has not yet officially shared its decision regarding Raja’s request.
President of Zamalek, Mortada Mansour, commended Raja’s request to postpone the game.
He said in a telephone interview with the “Hazrat Muwatin” television program on the Al-Hadath Alyaoum channel that he does not mind postponing the match “because we are one Arab people until the players of Raja have recovered.”
The recently discovered COVID-19 cases came after testing 40 members of the Raja of Casablanca team, as part of the 16th medical survey of the squad.
In addition to Raja, Wydad of Casablanca is also participating in the competition.
Wydad lost against Ahly of Egypt on October 17 at the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca, as part of the semi-final of the competition. The red team is set to rematch with Ahly on Friday.
