Tuesday 15 October 2024

Tuesday 15 October 2024

In keeping with Royal Ambition, Atlas Lionesses Make History

Rabat – The impossible is not Moroccan! The qualification with flying colors of the Atlas Lionesses for the Round of 16 of the World Cup in Australia is certainly historic, but not fortuitous or even a coincidence.

It’s an eminently revealing achievement of Moroccan talent, in keeping with HM King Mohammed VI’s ambitions for a glittering national game that is making a name for itself on the international stage, as was the case at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

The achievements of Morocco’s various national teams are the outcome of patient work imbued with seriousness, commitment and the values of sincere patriotism, under the visionary leadership of the Sovereign.

If the Royal vision is bearing fruit at the world’s key football events, this is a clear illustration of the development programs initiated and driven at the highest level of government.

Implemented in August 2020 following the signing of the Plan for the Development of women’s football in Morocco 2020-2024, it didn’t take long for the development of this discipline to get the sport on track, as part of an ambitious, structured and no-holds-barred approach.

For the first time, the senior national team has booked its ticket to play the final stages of the World Cup, and reached the final of the AFCON in 2022. A first. These achievements come less than two years after the professionalization of the national championship, under the leadership of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), which aims to reach the 90,000-member mark by 2024.

Women’s football, once relegated to amateur status, has definitely taken off since 2020, emerging as a model on an African scale and beyond, and leading the way for the continent.

The efforts made by the FRMF have enabled the emergence of professional football: payment of salaries to players, direct subsidies to clubs (buses, shirts, balls, etc.) and other incentives.

The three-part plan, with its targeted actions, focuses on restructuring, developing the discipline and monitoring national teams.

In addition, the Federation has deployed talent prospecting and detection projects in the various provinces of the Kingdom, but also ensured that the skills of national technical managers are improved and that a Sport-Studies program is implemented.

Clubs have not been left behind in this virtuous momentum: substantial support has been provided to regional clubs and leagues, as well as to Elite clubs, combined with the installation of quality infrastructures to enhance the pace of training.

Another key element of this roadmap is the Federation’s ambitious training program for dozens of participants in Rabat and Saïdia, an initiative which was subsequently extended to regional football centers.

In concrete terms, the Kingdom has won the bid to host the 2022 Women’s African Cup of Nations, FAR Rabat finished third in the first edition of the CAF Women’s Champions League, while the U17 team qualified for the 2023 World Cup.

The achievement of the Atlas Lionesses thus echoes the high value of the content of HM the King’s speech last Saturday, in which the Sovereign emphasized: “Whenever the conditions are right, and each time they commit to seriousness and to the spirit of patriotism, Moroccan youth always manage to dazzle the world with great, unprecedented accomplishments, and the feat of our national football team in the last World Cup is a case in point”.

MAP

Related news

Morocco’s women football team has maintained its 59th place in the FIFA rankings published on Friday, and remains in the African top 3.

Absent from the last 2024 Olympic Games in Paris which factores in the FIFA rankings, the Atlas Lionesses still occupy third place at continental level, behind South Africa (50th) and Nigeria (36th).

Additionally, the U.S. team are back in the lead (+4) thanks to their victory at the Olympic Games, ahead of England (+1) and Spain who fell back to 3rd place.

The next FIFA ranking of women’s teams will be released on December 20.

Morocco will play in Group C at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, following the draw carried out on Wednesday in Bogotá.

Morocco will play reigning world champions Spain, joint-record champions USA and Paraguay in the World Cup, scheduled for August 31 to September 22 in Colombia.

Last January, the U20 women’s national football team achieved a historic qualification for the U20 World Cup.

Despite their defeat in the second-leg game of the final round of the African qualifiers against Ethiopia, the Moroccan team clinched their ticket to Colombia 2024 thanks their precious victory (2-0) in the first leg, at the Abdi El stadium in El Jadida.

Groups:

Group A: Colombia, Australia, Cameroon, Mexico

Group B: France, Canada, Brazil, Fiji

Group C: Spain, United States, Paraguay, Morocco

Group D: Germany, Venezuela, Nigeria, Republic of Korea

Group E: Japan, New Zealand, Ghana, Austria

Group F: North Korea, Argentina, Costa Rica, Netherlands

The Moroccan U-17 women’s football team has qualified for the final round of the African qualifiers for the 2024 World Cup, after a comprehensive 4-0 victory over its Algerian counterpart on Friday in Algiers, in the second leg of the third and penultimate round of the qualifiers.

Morocco’s goals were scored by C.Boughazi (6th), L.M.Jamai (62nd, 79th) and D.Haizoun (76th).

In the first leg, the Moroccan team won 4-0.

The African teams qualifying for the U-17 Women’s World Cup will be announced at the end of the fourth and final round in June.

The U-17 Women’s World Cup 2024 is scheduled to take place from October 16 to November 3 in the Dominican Republic.
 

Morocco women’s national football team trashed, here Wednesday, Tunisia 4-1, in the second leg of the third and penultimate preliminary round of the 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers.

Fatima Tagnaout (11th) and Ibtissam Jraidi (16th, 20th and 22nd) scored for the Atlas Lionesses, while Salma Zemzem (58th) scored the only goal for the Tunisians.

In the first leg, held last Friday in Tunis, Morocco bested Tunisia 2-1.

During the fourth and final round of 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers, Morocco will play Zambia to clinch their ticket for the 2024 Olympics as one of the two representatives of Africa.

Morocco U-17 women’s football team trashed Nigeria 11-0, Monday at the Berkane municipal stadium, in the first leg of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers (Africa zone).

Moroccan goals were scored by Ouafae Bentahri (19th), Salma Senhaji (26th), Awatif El Ghazouani (31st), Lina Jamai Mokhtari (32nd, 34th, 42nd, 45th+1, 90th+4), Ines Aboucharif (51st), Siham Bouhouch (55th) and Sara Dofry (90th).

The second-leg game will take place on Friday at the Berkane municipal stadium.

Morocco’s U20 women’s football team qualified for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup 2024 in Colombia, despite losing (0-1) to its Ethiopian counterpart on Sunday at the Abebe Bikila stadium in Addis Ababa, in the second leg of the fourth and final round of African qualifiers for the World Cup, scheduled for August 31 to September 22.

Morocco beat Ethiopia 2-0 in the first leg, played last Saturday at the El Abdi stadium in El Jadida.

This is the first World Cup qualification for the national U20 women’s team.