In 2004, I was a young girl who didn’t understand the rules of football, but I understood the silence. I remember the eerie stillness of the Moroccan streets and the heavy hearts of my family when we lost the final to Tunisia. That was my first introduction to heartbreak during the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), a disappointment that has stayed with me for more than twenty years.
Fast forward to 2026. Like every Moroccan, I carried a fierce, earned confidence. We are the nation that reached a World Cup semi-final, won the Arab Cup, and watched our U20s conquer the world by defeating Argentina. Yet within our own continent, we seem trapped in a cycle where global standards of excellence collide with baffling contradictions.
A script of irony
The events of the Morocco vs Senegal final felt less like a match and more like a systemic failure. When one side withdraws and chaos follows, the path to justice should be clear. In most competitions, the rules are simple: The team that refuses to play risks forfeiting the match, while the laws of the game protect the team that remains on the field. Fans expected governing bodies to apply those rules consistently, especially on a stage as important as a continental final. Instead, the outcome instigated by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) felt like a reversal of reality:
The side that withdrew walked away with the title.
The side that remained was met with sanctions.
The team that deserted the pitch in protest was celebrated; the host that kept the tournament alive was punished.
Morocco provided world-class infrastructure and helped save the image of the tournament, only to be met with decisions that felt staggeringly disproportionate.
The Mirror of Self-Criticism
No one masters self-criticism (in Arabic “jald al-dhat”) like we Moroccans, so let’s turn that mirror inward now. Coach Walid Regragui, your emotional lineup, focusing on injured stars over capable assets handed us vulnerability on a platter. You chose sentiment over strategy, fielding players based on heart rather than the cold calculation we needed. If you had picked the right feet, the pragmatic, clinical selections, we would have won on merit and left no room for controversy. Emotion didn’t just cost us a trophy; it was one piece of our larger failure of pragmatism. Until we demand strategy over sentiment from leaders on and off the pitch, we remain vulnerable to the chaos of the system.
The right to grieve
Many voices tell Moroccans to “just forget it” and move on. But you cannot easily heal from a nationwide shock you are told to ignore. We have the right to process this, to feel the weight of it, and to live through the shock. We cannot pretend the sky isn’t falling while we stand in the wreckage.
The “Et tu, Brute?” moment
This loss echoes Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”. When Caesar was struck, the physical wounds were secondary. The true blow was seeing his friend Brutus among the attackers. “Et tu, Brute?” That is how this moment feels. The sting comes from a Senegal we once considered our brothers, and from decisions whose reasoning left us questioning the clarity of the rules we all play by.
We are not arrogant; we are exhausted by double standards. We did not just lose a trophy to a broken decision-making process; we lost it because we were not pragmatic enough to shield ourselves from the blade.
Like many Moroccans, in 2004, I learned what it felt like to lose a game. In 2026, I learned what it feels like to be betrayed by the game itself.
