Morocco: Why Is Football Deflating?
- 06/14/12
Otman Affaya
Washington / Morocco News Board---The Moroccan football has been a topic of debate since I can remember. It has made each Moroccan more knowledgeable about the game itself. The passion, anger, happiness football brings to the Moroccan people is hard to describe, forget about analyze it, or claim that you have all answers to it. It is really complex and sensitive topic where arrogance and opinions reign and listening and contemplating alternatives dies. From this perspective a diagnosis of the health of Moroccan football from outside was needed. What is wrong with our National team? Why Moroccan is’s so desperate for their National team to do better? Who is responsible of all drama unfold for this sport?
We are going to try to diagnose those conditions, and try to suggest some possible prescriptions to better Moroccan football, and maybe to open up an honest debate to what we need to do to change our perception? How we should implement a new effective vision to success?
As a Moroccan expatriated for many years outside the motherland, I could speak for myself, and each Moroccan Residing outside. We are concerned with home news. We do follow the National team whereabouts, every chance we get on multiple media outlets. I would go further and say religiously like some of my friends they skip work to watch the games. Why because we love our country, the game. We are so addicted to it that the game makes us forget about our daily headaches and worries. Also brings us a lot of happiness, and joy. For some like me it is more than a game it is a way of life. For the responsible back home my advice is, do not try to fool us because we sense your intentions, follow your actions, and analyze your result.
The Moroccan football mentality had never changed since I move away; it is progressing in slow motion like everything else. At the same time if we look just a little up north of us to Spain was somehow in the same situation prior to the eighties. After joining the European Union, when the economy started booming, they decided to implement a long term sport plan; they allocate the proper money for formation, education of coaches, materials. In football they choose a playing system they implemented from bottom to top or vice versa. With clear vision, smart work and the input of the Dutch football brought by Johan Cryuff and Daniels Nichols, Spain managed to win not only the world cup for a first time, but also the second European trophies. They pretty much succeeded in every sport.
Morocco meanwhile still struggle on which field are we going to play. Natural grasses, artificial or clay which style, is it Brazilian, French, Spanish, or maybe a mixture of everything? Instead of collecting the modest experts we have (coaches and players on the field) and ask for their advice. What they did is just ignore them? Now the country started realizing the importance of football to the population. Their vision and plan is predicted to fail, because their narrow vision reflects band-aid policies with amateurism.
They should have invested on local expertise to do thorough studies, surveys that will lead us to a plan that will fit our play. How, when you internalize your strengths and become aware of your weaknesses you will be able to achieve a football identity like other countries Brazil, Holland and Spain did.
Managing football the right way requires honesty and transparency between all the parties involved. Unfortunately, football in Morocco has been always mismanaged by people they tried their best to interfere with true recommendations. Since the independence of Morocco the football decisions have been influenced by the palace directly or indirectly. For years, it was managed by the Royal Army, now when it turns to the public just for the form. The federation and the youth ministry is incompetent, corrupted agency in Morocco. It is about time to let the population get involved on the decision making and the choice of direction they want to see the National football going.
Right Now the Moroccan football is going nowhere for the following reasons:
• No mental toughness on the part of our players or everyone involves. Why, because we tend to look for short cuts and band aids solutions to our problems. In general we do not focus or reinforce the positives points in our lives (off course with some exceptions) and that reflect on our game. This weakness comes from lack of self belief, and confidence.
Nowadays this skill could be mastered by
• Cultural colonialism is engrained on our psychic. We are very dependent on the other (foreigners) to do things for us. Do not misunderstand me, exchange of knowledge and know how to do skills is beneficial to any society. I am always puzzled with the fact that we cannot even clean and take care of our trash to name one. We rely on foreign companies to do that. This is very disturbing for a people living in the twenty first century. By the way, this applies to most Arab countries. I really do not know the reason why football is no different from this, guess how many Moroccan coaches we had the last 20 years I bet there is more expert foreigner than Moroccan.
Let’s view this, the beloved football federation is so rich that the country have a National technical director from France (Jean Pierre Morlan) ,National Coach (Eric Gerets) from Belgium , and the national director( Pim Verbeek) from Holland. Three different schools, what a mess, which one are we going to build up our strategies and our football future?? If I had the choice I would go with the Dutch school because they have more development and success in the world than France, forget about Belgium. This tells us a lot on the mistakes the Federation Royal Moroccan de Football (FRMF) is committed consciously or not.
Spain was smart enough to learn from Dutch school; the total football based on possession, passing attacking was adjusted to their strengths, regardless of the physical limitation (height, strength). The result they beat their mentor on their own game last world cup in Africa to become champions of the world.
• We do have a share of Moroccan talent and minds (players and coaches) we could have learnt a lot from their experiences regardless of their formation or education, but we tend to marginalize them, till they disappeared or they tend to invest themselves in other domain than football. Why, because the decision makers do not want Moroccan football to progress, certain elite of society chosen by the palace have credential and/or expertise to manage Moroccan football. If they put their personal interest over the national one.
One possible solution will be to create a national council with Moroccan coaches and ex-footballers and new coaches from all around the globe to figure out the possible strategies to develop and push the Moroccan football to the front.
• The Moroccan professional league: Botola pro was in a test for its first year. It is a positive change to put the Moroccan football on the world stage. Its foundation, logistics and business type was taken from a France model (la ligue1).The France model is a failing model in Europe according to the expert(Simon Kuper- soccernomics)), because they cannot compete with the others Europeans leagues. When was the last time a French team won the European championship (Marseille in 92-93)
My point we did not study our society structure with its economic, social, cultural strengths and weakness and came up with our own model. Once again it shows the dependence in our governance to Europe (postcolonial mentality). Do not get me wrong I am a strong believer in learning and taking successful things from other societies but not another failing model that we know in advance.
According to Mr. Kuper (soccernomics) clubs should know first who they are. They should operate like small businesses by using recent methods of business ideas, management, training and leadership…otherwise they are meant to fail. Clubs need to balance their financial needs with what they earn, and what the federation allocates to them. They need to have community and business support. In other words, they need sponsorship and stadiums full of supporters at each game.
It is true that football could tell us a lot about a society, reflects its culture, its psychic, its temper, its degree of civilization. When citizens do not have the minimum life needs guaranteed. They are not going invest their time and their money on football game. The only way to bring back the fans is an authentic change on the policies, and winning mentality on National and Club level. Recently some clubs like FUS, and MAS have done that by putting Morocco back on the African competition, and winning trophies, but they need stay up there, and keep working hard.
Remember no fans no games.
• The Moroccan supporter are a minute fan, time they are hyped with joy and love when the national team are winning, or despair and sadness when the team is losing and this is understandable. Frustration leads to abandon their support and that is unacceptable. It has been six years that the Moroccan people expressed their concerns for change about how and who they should see leading the national team, unfortunately the decisions have fallen on deaf ears.
The fans need to understand that in football one day your team wins, another day they will lose even the best teams in the world experience that. Your pledge should be for better or worse, till the end.
Morocco has great potential of expertise waiting for a chance to showcase their know how to manage a national team, and to win games if they are given a chance. Let us stop making excuses for not doing the right thing. Let us all pledge to turn back the page and start thinking realistically how we are going to build solid football system and successful sport in our country.
Finally, I will leave you with this quote from one of the best coaches in football history:
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that”. Bill Shankly
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Comments (7)
0
#1
article on Moroccan football :) —
2012-06-14 19:41
with all due respect, your logic does not seem to apply to Egypt. They seem to have done fine and the dynamics you listed are worse in that country than they are in Morocco.
My take on the situation: 20 years ago I was aspiring for Morocco to be the first African country to make it to the Semi-finals of the world cup, maybe even the finals (after their performance in 86). Today, I'd be lucky if they can just beat Botswana or Uganda, forget trying to match Egypt. I actually think that Moroccan football has not deflated. What I think happened is that the level of world football and in particular that of Africa has risen dramatically in a time period where Moroccan football level remained the same (same level as the 80s). Morocco has now some catching up to do especially at the African level, nevermind the world stage. I think Morocco needs to set metrics for achievable goals. they need to focus on crafting a game that will allow them to dominate African football as a top priority. That by default will guarantee a spot at the WC finals. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes and the Moroccan public will have to be patient during the rebuilding process. What is unfortunate is that ,IMHO, that rebuilding process has yet to to enter the psych of the Moroccan Football federation as evidenced by their choice of coach / coaching staff and the subsequent selection of players that form the team today.
My take on the situation: 20 years ago I was aspiring for Morocco to be the first African country to make it to the Semi-finals of the world cup, maybe even the finals (after their performance in 86). Today, I'd be lucky if they can just beat Botswana or Uganda, forget trying to match Egypt. I actually think that Moroccan football has not deflated. What I think happened is that the level of world football and in particular that of Africa has risen dramatically in a time period where Moroccan football level remained the same (same level as the 80s). Morocco has now some catching up to do especially at the African level, nevermind the world stage. I think Morocco needs to set metrics for achievable goals. they need to focus on crafting a game that will allow them to dominate African football as a top priority. That by default will guarantee a spot at the WC finals. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes and the Moroccan public will have to be patient during the rebuilding process. What is unfortunate is that ,IMHO, that rebuilding process has yet to to enter the psych of the Moroccan Football federation as evidenced by their choice of coach / coaching staff and the subsequent selection of players that form the team today.
0
#2
COMMENT_TITLE_R E Morocco: Why Is Football Deflating? —
2012-06-15 02:28
Your article has many valid points but I am going to repeat it again. Our national team get together with the coach 4-5 times a year due that most of the players play in foreign leagues. It is impossible for any coach to form a great team with this sort of arrangement.
We also do not have caliber players as we did in the past. We have at most 5 or 6 and I am going to venture and name them. Benatia ( who caught the eyes of Manchester United and Liverpool), Chammach (who need to start playing again, he's our best hope for scoring goals), Belhanda ( one of the best players in France ), Ossama Assaidi who is one of the best dribblers I have seen in long time, Abdelaziz Barrada young player with a great future ahead of him, Let's keep Kharja for his experience and his love for the country, Taarabt is great player that we cannot do without, if only his attitude changes.
Anyway, I don't think that we can point to one thing and the problem gets fixed, they are so many factors involved and chief among them is the mismanagement by those who are close to the king, the predators that took over the entire business of the country.
Money gets spent on their families to accompany the team is a god example.
I am enjoying the euro 2012 now and until Morocco gets it s act together, I'll cheer again.
We also do not have caliber players as we did in the past. We have at most 5 or 6 and I am going to venture and name them. Benatia ( who caught the eyes of Manchester United and Liverpool), Chammach (who need to start playing again, he's our best hope for scoring goals), Belhanda ( one of the best players in France ), Ossama Assaidi who is one of the best dribblers I have seen in long time, Abdelaziz Barrada young player with a great future ahead of him, Let's keep Kharja for his experience and his love for the country, Taarabt is great player that we cannot do without, if only his attitude changes.
Anyway, I don't think that we can point to one thing and the problem gets fixed, they are so many factors involved and chief among them is the mismanagement by those who are close to the king, the predators that took over the entire business of the country.
Money gets spent on their families to accompany the team is a god example.
I am enjoying the euro 2012 now and until Morocco gets it s act together, I'll cheer again.
0
#3
COMMENT_TITLE_R E Morocco: Why Is Football Deflating? —
2012-06-22 04:02
We need to chill and see how things will fold. Do we want the equipe to end up in the World Cup? With its not convincing match against Gambia I say the team isn't ready.
But it's given that we Moroccans like to procracinate and wait until the end to do something. The start of the World Cup qualifiers are always slow for our team.
Did you see the match with Cote D'ivoire? The players gave it their ALL even if there was no strong strategic play the coach was using.
I'd like the team to acheive small victories like the Arab Cup, and qualify for the CAN in 2013 in South Africa. I'd like to see the team go to the quarter final there that's good enough.
I like that the Federation is building nice stadiums in Morocco. Those are needed to build a strong base. When people come to visit Morocco from Egypt and the ME they cry and wish they had the same.
Go Lions. We're behind you wether you win or lose.
But it's given that we Moroccans like to procracinate and wait until the end to do something. The start of the World Cup qualifiers are always slow for our team.
Did you see the match with Cote D'ivoire? The players gave it their ALL even if there was no strong strategic play the coach was using.
I'd like the team to acheive small victories like the Arab Cup, and qualify for the CAN in 2013 in South Africa. I'd like to see the team go to the quarter final there that's good enough.
I like that the Federation is building nice stadiums in Morocco. Those are needed to build a strong base. When people come to visit Morocco from Egypt and the ME they cry and wish they had the same.
Go Lions. We're behind you wether you win or lose.
0
#4
COMMENT_TITLE_R E Morocco: Why Is Football Deflating? —
2012-06-22 08:29
Once again Mr. Morcelli, true we do not have a players with a caliber of Messi or Ronaldo a great players, but we do have talent nowadays talent are not just innate but also they are made. Like what France did with clairfonataine school, or Barcelona with la masia school,or Morocco with M6 Academy. First like you mentioned a national coach have a plenty of time to pick the right team and players that he thinks will performed for him and for the country. So to me a coach is a chef orchestrate, he needs to know band member what they can do, and what they need to work on. The Coach Job is to connect them together to create a decent symphony.
True the best team Morocco has are the 86 (Mexico) and 98(France) , to me the likes of Ben Barek(Moroccan pele), Faras, aasilaZaki, Biaz, dolmi, timomi, bouderballa, krimoand … are our best players profile that we need to reproduce year after year till we hit the dream team that will move the inspiration forward.I would be very happy if there is any studies about those period of Moroccan Football. the like of Dolmi& Co were masters of their time.
I am really enjoying the Euro, almost all my prediction were spot on. I am predicting a big surprise winner take out Spain and Germany.
True the best team Morocco has are the 86 (Mexico) and 98(France) , to me the likes of Ben Barek(Moroccan pele), Faras, aasilaZaki, Biaz, dolmi, timomi, bouderballa, krimoand … are our best players profile that we need to reproduce year after year till we hit the dream team that will move the inspiration forward.I would be very happy if there is any studies about those period of Moroccan Football. the like of Dolmi& Co were masters of their time.
I am really enjoying the Euro, almost all my prediction were spot on. I am predicting a big surprise winner take out Spain and Germany.
0
#5
COMMENT_TITLE_R E Morocco: Why Is Football Deflating? —
2012-06-25 00:45
I wasn't talking about Messi or Ronaldo because we never had such phenomenal players. I was specifically thinking about Dolmy, Haddaoui, Timoumi, Mustapha hajji, Laghrissi, Bouderbala, Krimou, Namris, Khayri Lbiyaz, lbasir, and even Hsina who did an excellent job guarding Rummenigge during their world cup adventure.
We should be able to get players in this caliber out of a population of 24 million who eats, drinks and sleeps soccer.
If all we can do is beat Bahrain who score against themselves and get ecstatic about it, that's not going to help us beat Ivory coast in their home turf.
We should be able to get players in this caliber out of a population of 24 million who eats, drinks and sleeps soccer.
If all we can do is beat Bahrain who score against themselves and get ecstatic about it, that's not going to help us beat Ivory coast in their home turf.
0
#6
RE: Morocco: Why Is Football Deflating? —
2012-07-02 12:50
...
I watched some of the 0-0 match between Morocco and Libya . Truly sad what we have become.
I watched some of the 0-0 match between Morocco and Libya . Truly sad what we have become.
0
#7
RE: Morocco: Why Is Football Deflating? —
2012-07-02 12:51
...
True si Morcelli, it was really boring in fact Moroccan team could not manage to complete even 6 passes the whole game forget about excessive touches. Libya was a better side with possession and chances. A long ball passes with no purpose is a sign of a poor team. No works have been done.
True si Morcelli, it was really boring in fact Moroccan team could not manage to complete even 6 passes the whole game forget about excessive touches. Libya was a better side with possession and chances. A long ball passes with no purpose is a sign of a poor team. No works have been done.
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