Morocco’s Royal Moroccan Football Federation has taken some firm steps by lodging a complaint against the refereeing of their semi-final clash with France at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The African nation’s fairytale journey at the tournament in Qatar came to an end after they fell to the defending champions in the semifinals. However, it was a game where the better team lost, as Morocco carved open the French defense on a number of occasions.
However, they were not as clinical as their opponents in the final third, which helped Didier Deschamps’ side prevailed who scored two goals from clear opportunities. But once again, this was another game which was marred by some controversial and eyebrow raising decisions from the man blowing the whistle, the referee. Match officiating at the Qatar World Cup has been slammed heavily, with Argentina captain Lionel Messi even asking FIFA to “review” the refereeing of the officials.
Morocco’s 2022 FIFA World Cup journey ends on a controversial note
Mexican referee Cesar Arturo Ramos Palazuelos was handed the responsibility of overseeing the second semifinal of the 2022 FIFA World Cup between Morocco and France. While he mostly had a quiet game with the cards, unlike the Argentina vs the Netherlands game, Cesar Ramos only flashed a single yellow throughout the game, for Morocco’s Sofiane Boufal in the first half.
However, that too had a lot of controversy, as it appeared the winger was rather fouled by France left-back Theo Hernandez in the French penalty box, while he also received a knock. Cesar Ramos did blew the whistle which had the Moroccan fans roaring up as they felt their side had got a penalty, but instead it was Boufal who was booked for a foul on Hernandez. The replays even showed that it was the France left-back who made the contact and brought Boufal down.
But Cesar Ramos refused to have a look at it in the VAR monitor stationed in between the two dugouts. The Royal Moroccan Football Federation have specially mentioned this incident in their complaint to FIFA, as an official statement from them read:
“The Royal Moroccan Football Federation [FRMF] strongly protested against the arbitration of the Morocco-France match officiated by Mr. Cesar Arturo Ramos. To this end, the FRMF sent a letter to the competent body in which it returns to the arbitration situation which deprived the Moroccan selection of two indisputable penalties in the opinion of several arbitration specialists.
“The FRMF also expressed its great astonishment that the Video Assistance to Arbitration [VAR] system did not react to these arbitration situations. The FRMF recalls that it will spare no effort to defend and preserve the rights of the National Selections by advocating fairness in arbitration and by denouncing these arbitration decisions taken during this semi-final confrontation of the World Cup of FIFA Qatar 2022.”
The FRMF now awaits a reply from FIFA on their complaint, while their team plays Croatia in a replay of their group stage game, however in the third-place play-off at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. No matter what the result of the legal proceedings, or Morocco’s clash against Croatia, the Atlas Lions have had a tournament to remember, where they gunned down the likes of Belgium, Spain and Portugal all the way to the semi-finals, and then gave France a run for their money.