The Moroccan Football Federation has decided to file an official complaint concerning the arbitration of the semi-final pitting France and Morocco.
On Wednesday evening, Morocco was eliminated from the 2022 World Cup at the gates of the final, losing to France (2-0). This fairly interesting journey ended in the semi-final, but on the other hand, caused a lot of talk on social networks, particularly because of the refereeing. The Mexican referee of the meeting Cesar Ramos was at the center of the debates since he had several times had rather incomprehensible decisions. And several facts of the game made both French supporters and Moroccan supporters speak.
One of the first highly contentious actions took place in the first half. After a slip in his own surface, Théo Hernandez thus literally brought down Sofiane Boufal. If some Moroccan fans were expecting a penalty, it was not the case for Mr. Ramos who decided to whistle against Morocco and gave Sofiane Boufal a rather severe yellow card. Despite this error, he was not challenged by the VAR on the action either. A decision that does not go down well with the FRMF (Royal Moroccan Football Federation).
According to several sources, the FRMF has simply decided to file an official complaint to FIFA in relation to the arbitration of the semi-final. “A protest which follows the two penalties not whistled for Morocco in the first period”, a communique from FRMF reads. The second penalty in question concerned Selim Amallah. The midfielder of Standard de Liège collapsed in the area on a set piece without the referee whistling anything.
This claim, like all claims after arbitration decisions, has very little chance of succeeding, especially in a very short time since France faces Argentina in the World Cup final this Sunday. The referee of the match, who also responded to the many Moroccan supporters on his Instagram account, also had questionable decisions on the Moroccan side with the absence of a card after borderline interventions by Achraf Dari, for example.
