Sport in Morocco

Sports in Morocco refers to the sports played in the Kingdom of Morocco. As of 2007, Moroccan society participated in many sports, including handball, football, golf, tennis, basketball, and athletics. Hicham El Guerrouj, a retired middle distance runner for Morocco, won two gold medals for Morocco at the Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Ministry of Youth and Sports

The Moroccan Ministry of Youth and Sports was founded in August 1964 and houses all the sporting federations in the country. Despite the Ministry's mission to engage young people in sporting opportunities, many Moroccan athletes denounce the institution as not giving young Moroccans enough sponsorship or opportunities to play sports professionally.[1]

Football
Morocco at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia
Moroccan football fans at the 2018 FIFA World Cup

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation based in Rabat is the governing body of football in Morocco. Morocco qualified for the FIFA World Cup five times and bid for the World Cups 1994, 1998, 2006, 2010 and 2026 but lost out to United States, France, Germany, South Africa and Canada/Mexico/United States in these bids. Morocco is now co-bidding for the 2030 with either Portugal/Spain or Algeria/Tunisia.

Botola
Main article: Botola

The Botola Pro is the top league competition for football clubs in Morocco. Each year 16 teams compete for the championship. Champion and runner-up participate in the African Champions League. The most successful clubs are AS FAR, and Wydad Casablanca, and Raja Casablanca.

Equestrian sports

Morocco has a vibrant equestrian sports community headed by the Royal Moroccan Equestrian Federation. Morocco's most famous equestrian, Abdelkebir Ouaddar, represented the country in the 2014 Normandy World Equestrian Games and 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[2]

Motorsport

Mehdi Bennani is Morocco's most notable racing driver. He has competed in the World Touring Car Championship since 2009, where he has scored a number of top three finishes. In 2014 he scored his first WTCC win at the championship's Shanghai round.[3]

Cricket

Morocco hosted the 2002 Morocco Cup, which was well attended.[4] Sri Lanka beat South Africa in the final.[5]

Morocco boasts an ICC approved ground capable of hosting full internationals, the National Cricket Stadium in Tangier. It has so far hosted a One Day International triangular tournament, the Morocco Cup in 2002, where Sri Lanka won ahead of South Africa and Pakistan.

Basketball
See also: Morocco national basketball team

Morocco, represented by the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Basket-Ball, has been affiliated to FIBA since 1936.[6] The men's national team has won a FIBA Africa Championship title, won in 1965. The professional national league is Nationale 1.

Rugby union
Main articles: Rugby union in Morocco and Morocco national rugby union team

Rugby union came to Morocco in the early 20th century, mainly by the French who occupied the country.[7] As a result, Moroccan rugby was tied to the fortunes of France, during the first and second World War, with many Moroccan players going away to fight.[7] Like many other Maghreb nations, Moroccan rugby tended to look to Europe for inspiration, rather than to the rest of Africa.

Notable Moroccan players include:

Hockey

Morocco was admitted into the International Ice Hockey Federation on May 22, 2010.[8]

Hosting International Sports

Morocco had vied many times for hosting the FIFA World Cup, mostly notably losing to Canada/Mexico/United States in 2026 to be the first by three countries to host the tournament.

In 2019 Morocco hosted the African Games in Rabat, it was the first time that the country hosted the African Games, it was to largest African Games ever and the largest sporting event to be hosted by Morocco.

In 2019, it was announced that Morocco would host the Inaugural African Para Games in Rabat in January 2020.[9] however, due to relation issure between Africa Paralympic Committee and the country's authorities, Morocco withdraw from hosting the first African Para Games in August 2019, instead it took place in Cairo, Egypt

Stadiums
See also: List of indoor arenas in Morocco

See also

References
  1. Yabiladi.com. "Moroccan athelete [sic] Hicham El Guerrouj is pessimistic about national athleticism". en.yabiladi.com. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  2. "OUADDAR Abdelkebir - Olympic Equestrian | Morocco". 2016-08-22. Archived from the original on 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  3. Mills, Peter (12 October 2014). "Shanghai WTCC: Mehdi Bennani scores Honda's first 2014 win". autosport.com. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  4. "Looking ahead to the Morocco Cup 2002". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
  5. "Morocco Cup". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
  6. Morocco (MAR), FIBA
  7. Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1-86200-013-1) p71
  9. "All set for first African Para Games". Paralympic. April 2, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
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