Morocco’s Soccer Chief Taunts Algeria After Youth Team’s Mediterranean Games Success

The Moroccan team did better than the Algerian team at the Oran Mediterranean Games football tournament (June 25-July 5). While the Atlas Lions finished the adventure in the semi-finals (beaten by Italy) after eliminating Algeria, France and Spain, the young Fennecs were eliminated in the first round. This delighted Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the FMRF, who praised the performance of the Moroccan under-18 national team.

"We have a good training system. What does the (U-18) selection have less than Spain or France?" questioned the Moroccan football boss during his appearance on a Moroccan television channel. "The others, I don’t even talk about them because we played a training match," he added, thus referring to the Algerian team.

These remarks provoked strong reactions from former Moroccan international Abdeslam Ouaddou. "This gentleman, as a member of CAF, FIFA, is supposed to develop and represent African football? This way of speaking is just outrageous and devoid of any meaning," the friend of Djamel Belmadi, the coach of the Algerian national team, reacted on Twitter.