Rabat, Morocco (TMT)- According to an interview the president of the leading Moroccan football club Raja Casablanca, Mohammed Boudrika, gave yesterday night to local Sports radio channel Radio Mars, “10 Raja Casablanca players were injured after being beaten up by the Algerian riot Police,” in the aftermath of the penalty shoot out exercise which saw the Algerian team of Wifaq Stiff, defending champions, proceed to the next round.
“I really don’t understand what happened. Maybe it is due to the scuffle that occurred in the home game in Casablanca,” Boudrika said.
“The president of Wifaq Stif came to the scenes and called us jews. He said literally ‘you are jews’,” Boudrika added.
“His words were documented by the cameraman of Al-riyadiya sports outlet.”
“The president of Wifaq Stiff then joined the riot police in beating our players.”
“The beating up happened under the nose of the referee, who saw everything from A to Z,” Boudrika said in a sad tone.
“I don’t understand why the Algerian police beat up the players. I myself was beaten up when trying to intervene to sooth things up.”
” I still can’t understand why we were beaten up.”
“What happened is a shame. Something that should never happen again.”
The Moroccan Times understands that this event may have been triggered by a 6 month-old spat that occurred as a result of Moroccan fans cheering during a game in the last Club World Cup 2014, hosted in Morocco, against the very Algerian club of Wifaq Stif.
Back-then, the crowd sang Moroccan national songs [Niadae Alhassan” and “Laayoune Einiya”] from the stands and cheered on New Zealand’s Auckland City. The Moroccan fans were loudly whistling whenever the Algerian players held the ball for a while. Wifaq Stiff lost that game and various Algerian players were caught dismayed and appalled in the post-gaze of the game. Some of them even blamed the Moroccan fans for their loss and said that “we were not expecting such a reception from our Moroccan brothers.”
This probably explains why the president of Wifaq Stiff called the Raja fans “jews,” a word that is used by uneducated North Africans to insult people who betray their friends and do not keep their words.
CURVA SUD CASA, a Raja Casablanca fan group that traveled to Algeria to support their club, called for “a rational approach” on this and said that “it was not the Algerian supporters who attacked the Raja players, but rather the riot police. They further noted that they were “very well received by the Algerians” and that they “call on all those Raja supporters in Morocco who threatened to do worse if an Algerian team makes it to Morocco anytime soon, to retract their statements and apologize.”
“The Algerian supporters treated us very well. May Allah bless them and make their generosity more fruitful [They said Allah Ikattar Khirhom]. It is the police that attacked the Raja players and some of the traveling supporters, not the Algerian supporters,” Curva Sud Casa stressed.
The Moroccan Times.
