Morocco protests to FIFA over semi-final referee

Morocco soccer body, Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FMRF) has protested to the world’s soccer governing body, FIFA over the Mexican referee Cesar Ramos’ failure to award a penalty to the Atlas Lions during their Qatar World Cup semi-final match against France on Wednesday.

The defending champions, France beat Morocco 2-0 with goals coming from Theo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani for Les Bleus to book a final clash against Argentina on Sunday, according to BBC sport.

According to FMRF, the referee, Ramos refused to give a penalty to the Moroccan side when Hernandez made contact with Sofiane Boufal in the area which did not go down well with the North Africans.

The country’s football governing agency released a statement on Thursday that it has written to FIFA to register its grievances.

Morocco has already made history in the soccer world for being the first African and Arab team to reach a semi-final of the World Cup having defeated Belgium, Canada, Spain and Portugal.

“The FMRF has written to the relevant body to review the refereeing decisions that deprived the Moroccan team of two penalties that were indisputable in the view of several refereeing specialists,” Morocco said in a statement.

“The FMRF was equally astonished that the video assistant referee (VAR) did not react to these situations.”

The Atlas Lions still have one match left in Qatar when they lock horns with Croatia in Saturday’s third-place play-off.