Hard to pinpoint the precise moment when Africa, en masse, fell in love with Morocco’s national football team, but the peak of pan-continental support would probably have been reached sometime between quarter to four, Casablanca time, on December 10, 2022 and about an hour and seven minutes later.
The first moment was when Youssef En-Nesyri defied gravity in Qatar, rising so high in front of Ruben Dias that the Portugal defender seemed almost to shrink in stature. En Nesyri’s commanding header put Morocco 1-0 ahead in their World Cup quarter-final.
At ten to five, with the stadium clock ticking past 90 minutes, Yassine Bounou – ‘Bono’ to his hundreds of millions of fans across Africa and the Arab world – then scrambled off his line to save from Cristiano Ronaldo.
Morocco had hung on, and delivered a piece of history to share across huge portions of the planet. They were the first African or Arab side to make the last four of a World Cup.
The feelgood factor lives on, felt not only in the curiosity that attaches to the Atlas Lions as they embark, at an Africa Cup of Nations beginning in Ivory Coast on Saturday, on their first major tournament since the World Cup.
The legacy has helped put an extra spring in the step of African football as a whole. At the next World Cup, with its expanded format, nine African countries, up from the current five, will go to North America aspiring to match, or better, Morocco’s landmark of a semi-final.
At the World Cup after that, some will have a chance of playing on their own continent, Morocco’s joint candidacy with Spain and Portugal having been approved, with a tweak or two, by Fifa for the 2030 event.
But then Morocco rather needed to reach out to Africa, to be better appreciated there. Rewind less than a decade and Morocco was the continent’s ungrateful rebel.
Back in 2015 it was supposed to be hosting an Afcon, but pulled out very late, citing concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus, which at the time was afflicting parts of west Africa. Caf, the region’s governing body, were left in the lurch, Morocco initially banned for two successive Afcons before that suspension was overturned.
Not that being reinstated to the 2017 and 2019 Afcons gave Morocco the platform to show they were building up to be brilliant World Cup pioneers. Afcons are Morocco’s Achilles heel. No so-called heavyweight of African football has such a consistently poor record at the biannual showpiece.
“It’s time to lift the curse,” says Walid Regragui, architect of the journey to the Qatar 2022 semi-final as he looks over a barren sequence of Cup of Nations trips that reaches back almost half a century. Morocco won their only Afcon title in 1976; their sole appearance in a final since then was 20 years ago, when they lost to Tunisia in Tunis.
“The last time we lifted this trophy gets further and further back,” admitted Regragui, who played in the 2004 final and was part of the Morocco team in the drab, winless group stage elimination two years later. “But that gap is no reason to put pressure on ourselves.”
Pressure boiled over at Morocco’s exit from the last Afcon – before Regragui’s appointment as manager – with several players and staff involved in heated scuffling with opponents at the end of Egypt’s quarter-final win.
Regragui has put some pressure on himself. In the immediate euphoria of the World Cup, he undertook to win an Afcon at the next opportunity or else step down from the job. He has since retreated a little but will consider his position if Morocco have not reached at least the semi-finals in a month’s time.
He has been loyal to the personnel from the adventure in Qatar, a number of whom moved clubs on the back of the impact they made there.
Sofyan Amrabat is at Manchester United, having pushed to leave Fiorentina. Hakim Ziyech is no longer a fringe winger at Chelsea but at Galatasaray while Bono and defender Roman Saiss were part of last year’s influx of talent to Saudi Arabia’s Pro League.
With them in Ivory Coast are some graduates from the under-23 side who claimed Morocco’s first African title in that age group. Encouraged by the momentum of Regragui’s side, players such as midfielder Amir Richardson, also eligible for France and the USA, and Bayer Leverkusen’s Amine Adli, a former France under-21 international, have recently committed to Morocco internationally.
Preparation has been meticulous. African football’s standard-bearers, demanding that Afcon’s standards meet Morocco’ own, elected to chose their own hotel in San Pedro, their base for the group matches against Tanzania, DR Congo and Zambia, rather than use accommodation Caf guided them towards.
They arrived early, too, in time to arrange Thursday's warm-up game against Sierra Leone, six days ahead of their opener, against Tanzania, who are the lowest-ranked side at Afcon but still capable of dreaming, thanks partly to Morocco’s great 2022 adventure, of one day making an impact on a global stage.
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
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In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
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The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
The five pillars of Islam
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
More coverage from the Future Forum
Specs
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Set-jetting on the Emerald Isle
Other shows filmed in Ireland include: Vikings (County Wicklow), The Fall (Belfast), Line of Duty (Belfast), Penny Dreadful (Dublin), Ripper Street (Dublin), Krypton (Belfast)
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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
MATCH INFO
Day 1 at Mount Maunganui
England 241-4
Denly 74, Stokes 67 not out, De Grandhomme 2-28
New Zealand
Yet to bat
Results
STAGE
1 . Filippo Ganna (Ineos) - 0:13:56
2. Stefan Bissegger (Education-Nippo) - 0:00:14
3. Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) - 0:00:21
4. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) - 0:00:24
5. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) - 0:00:30
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) - 4:00:05
2. Joao Almeida (QuickStep) - 0:00:05
3. Mattia Cattaneo (QuickStep) - 0:00:18
4. Chris Harper (Jumbo-Visma) - 0:00:33
5. Adam Yates (Ineos) - 0:00:39
