Morocco unfurls Palestine’s flag after kicking out Spain from FIFA World Cup 2022

On December 7, Morocco created history as they beat the 2010 winners, Spain. In the game, the North African side restricted the former champions to a 0-0 draw till the end of extra time. Notably, the European side had 77 percent of ball possession. However, they failed to score during the 120 minutes (30 minutes of extra time). In the penalty shootout, the Moroccon goalie, Yassine Bounou saved three goals.

This proved decisive as his teammates scored three out of four chances to seal the game on the other side. After the win, the players posed for photographs with a Palestine flag. This might land them in trouble as FIFA has rules for this. Apparently, the world football body doesn’t allow players to send any ‘political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images’.

The Law 4 of FIFA says “Equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images. Players must not reveal undergarments that show political, religious, personal slogans, statements or images, or advertising other than the manufacturer’s logo. For any offence the player and/or the team will be sanctioned by the competition organiser, national football association or by FIFA.”

Morocco players celebrated with the Palestine flag for the second time

Notably, this isn’t the first time the players have done such a thing during the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022. After winning against Canada in the Group Stage, they celebrated with the Palestine flag. The tournament hosts, Qatar has no relations with Israel and remains a supporter of the decades-long Palestinian cause for statehood.

Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories of east Jerusalem and the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War fought with Arab nations. About 250,000 Palestinians live in Qatar which has a population of around 2.9 million, most of them foreigners.