The Ethiopian national team reached the semifinals of the World Cup: A touching story of a tragic African Union President and the loss of Morocco to Portugal
The crowd at the stadium exploded in joy on Saturday as their team reached the World Cup semifinals, filling the stadium with a deafening roar and unleashing cheering, crying, dancing and singing.
African Union President Macky Sall wrote on Twitter, using capital letters to emphasise his excitement: “HISTORIC! AND FANTASTIC! There is a qualification for the semifinals of the world cup for the ATLAS LIONS. BRAVO MARCO.
As the game ended, the fans of Morocco shouted oohs and ahs. In unison, drown out the handful of Portuguese fans and whistling when Portugal took possession of the ball.
One man wearing the red and green of Morocco’s national flag and its football kit raised his hands in supplication as the final minutes ticked away, shouting “O God, o God.”
A fan with his hand over his mouth looked out over the pitch, unable to take in the magnitude of the win as a player circled the pitch with a flag draped around his shoulders.
The final few minutes of the game were hard to watch, as one fan who was in the cafe with a group of people said.
A professor of law at Wayne State University in Detroit is covering the World Cup. He is the author of the forthcoming book, “The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims.” The opinions expressed are of his own. CNN has an opinion on it.
The French Experience in Africa: A Journey Through the Past, Through the Ends of Time and Beyond: The Moroccon-France Experience at the 2018 FIFA World Cup
“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. James Baldwin wrote that his Blackness was seen as inhuman in the world.
On the other side of history, including those former colonies, Morocco has emerged as a team that can unite and build bridges with others inspired by their play. And beyond its representational significance, the team has galvanized the entire continent of Africa, the global constellation of Muslims and the disparate network of once colonized peoples ready to take on the world and remake it in its vision. The scars of imperial history will be wiped off in one night because of the color of their uniforms at the World Cup.
France is favored to win this match, but more importantly, a globe of people who see themselves in their players in between the boundaries of Africa and beyond the outstretched arms of the formerly colonized world will see a team announcing, fearlessly and faithfully, that we are not your inferiors.
Many Marocains Francais are stuck inside an existential play where being Moroccan negates the possibility of being either fully or formally French – a tale so essentially French that is has been immortalized by its iconic authors in novels where nameless Arabs were killed by strangers on Algerian beaches. It’s a country where striker Karim Benzema lamented in 2011, “I am French when I score, and Arab when I don’t.”
The 1998 and 2003 victories were an indictment of the French past because they moved many to brand the title holders the Africa’s Championship team, which placed the spotlight on the bright moments of their football glory.
The symbolism of unity faded as the 1998 team faded from memory, but the 2018 team served as an admission that France needed the children of colonization to lift World Cup gold.
France, for all of its colonial plunder and footballing splendor, has long been a team that divides, one so tinged with political fracture that former President Nicolas Sarkozy held a meeting with the French Football Federation in 2008 following a match against Tunisia in Paris to demand no more matches be played on French soil against the national teams of former colonies from north Africa.
Africa’s best coach at the World Cup: Why “plumbers” shouldn’t be ashamed to admit their mistakes if they are going to win
When the tournament was in South Africa, it cost more for African fans to travel to Doha, but now is less expensive. A Google search shows that flying from Douala to Doha is cheaper than to Johannesburg. The cheapest route from Casablanca to Johannesburg is to fly through Doha.
Getting visas to host nations is a big challenge for Africans, but Qatar also made that easier. That accessibility helped turn neutral matches into home matches. It is no coincidence that African nations have performed the best at this World Cup since the tournament was hosted in South Africa, responding to their supporters’ pride and passion.
No more “plumbers”: Historically, local coaches do not have development programs or opportunities at the highest levels. In African footballing circles, these coaches are often referred to – less than flatteringly – as “plumbers.” This results in African nations being led by European managers. That trend is going in a different direction.
The most successful is Morocco’s head coach Walid Regragui. More significantly, he is also a member of the first cohort of coaches to receive their Confederation of African Football’s pro coaching license earlier this year. Prior to Regragui’s cohort, any African manager looking to get continental coaching badges would have had to travel to Europe or Asia to obtain those qualifications.
The president of the Cameroonian Football Association was ridiculed when he claimed that the final would be between the two countries.
Eto’o and Regragui speak to a much-needed shift in the mentality of African countries, that they should aspire to not just participate, but to compete at the top table. Maintaining a positive mindset is needed to keep improving Africa’s performance.