Rabat: Thousands of Moroccans in the capital, Rabat, received their country’s football team, which achieved historic results in the World Cup Qatar 2022, while the country’s king presented medals to the players.
The Moroccan football team’s plane landed, on Tuesday evening, at Rabat Airport, coming from Qatar, after finishing fourth in the World Cup 2022 for the first time in the Arab world and Africa.
Video clips showed the crowd of thousands of Moroccan fans who enthusiastically encouraged the “Atlas Lions” throughout the tournament.
People waved flags, blew off fireworks, beat drums and chanted “ole, Oole, Oole, Maghreb, Maghreb” – the Arabic name for Morocco – as manager Walid Regragui and his players travelled from the airport to the capital in an open-top bus.
The Rabat security mandate has allocated more than 8,000 police and public forces to secure the roads and lanes that the Moroccan football team bus takes.
In a statement, the General Directorate of National Security confirmed that it had allocated a security and safety protocol to secure the expected mass celebrations.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI received the team with their mothers.
The king awarded the Moroccan football team members the “Order of the Throne” after their historic participation in the World Cup.
It is noteworthy that the Moroccan football team achieved remarkable and historical numbers during the World Cup in Qatar, the most prominent of which was its World Cup group, with two victories over Belgium and Canada and a draw with Croatia, and the first Arab and African team to achieve 7 points in the group stage.
Morocco was the first Arab African team to qualify for the semi-finals since the start of the World Cup in 1930, and it is also the third team from outside Europe and South America to qualify for the “Golden Square” after the United States in 1930 and South Korea in 2002.
