Moroccan Football Federation Denies Allegations from Ihattaren Family

These statements from the Ihattaren clan "are just nonsense," confides to Hespress a source close to the national football body. "How can we imagine that the FRMF could use such an event to talk about football? We sent Noureddine Naybet and Aziz Bouderbala to present our condolences and at no time did they mention his future with the national team," said the same source.

If for the young Dutch prodigy, Mohamed Ihattaren, the FRMF had never contacted him before the death of his father, the source close to the Federation recalls that Mustapha Hadji, the assistant coach of the Atlas Lions, was constantly in contact with the player. The attacking midfielder of PSV Eindhoven was on Hervé Renard’s radar long before he stood out at the start of this season," the same media continues.

As for the 150-room hotel on the Moroccan coast and the thirty small houses offered to Ihattaren to join the national team, the same source refutes everything and stresses that the Federation has never offered anything to players to get them to choose Morocco. "We didn’t even do it with Ziyech, who is much better than Ihattaren," concludes the same source.

It also specifies that this media outburst of the Ihattaren clan would aim "to calm the ardor of the Moroccans residing in the Netherlands who have strongly criticized the player for his choice."