By Jesús Cabaleiro Larrán – Periodistas En Español .The appearance of the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and the Saharawi territory separated from the Moroccan in the sale of tickets of the African Confederation of Nations (CAN) of football that will run from June 21 to July 19 in Egypt has motivated protests of Morocco.
In particular, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) contacted the CAN organization to withdraw the Saharawi flag from the Tazkarti.com ticketing portal, which is in three languages, Arabic, French and English. A protest letter was sent but they were informed that the platform that manages this page is abroad.
The company that manages it, Get Group, is headquartered in Dubai with subsidiaries in Egypt, Canada, Latin America and Saudi Arabia.
Many Moroccans are unaware that no country in the world recognizes Moroccan sovereignty and the annexation of the Sahara, which is considered a territory to be decolonized by the UN. The SADR, apart from being recognized by many African nations, is part of the African Union.
As a curiosity, the only team that supposedly represented the Moroccan Sahara, in French, Jeunesse Sportive El Massira Laayoune, Youth La Marcha, El Aaiún, which was founded in 1977 but not in the territory of the Sahara, but in Benslimane (a region in the center of Moroccan), whose president is one of the Moroccan pro-Sahara caciques, Hassan Derham, has dropped from the Second Division to the Third.
We must recall, on the other hand, that there is a selection of the Sahara – called the Dromedaries – and a Saharawi Football Federation (FSF), representing the SADR.
Morocco is framed in group D qualified as ‘group of death’ to coincide with Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa and Namibia.
The Atlas Lions will play the first game against Namibia on June 23 at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo, on June 28 against Ivory Coast and on July 1 against South Africa.
