Morocco v France: scramble for 13,000 free tickets sets Moroccans on mission impossible

Thousands of Moroccans who traveled to Qatar to watch Morocco’s faceoff against France have found themselves stranded in 48 hours long queues, with the hope of landing one of the 13,000 free tickets offered by Morocco’s football federation.

Driven by the promise of a free ticket for the already sold-off semi-finals game, fans who are already in Doha and others who are arriving in flights provided by Morocco’s national carrier brought home made food, covers, chairs and lights bracing for a long night ahead.

Scenes shared on social media showed thousands of Moroccan fans lined up at the Al-Janoub stadium in Al-Wakrah, near the Doha international airport, where the Federation said it would distribute tickets.

It is not clear how many Moroccans are in Qatar to watch the World Cup games, but they count in the dozen thousands.
Tiktok user under the name “Kimo”, described his experience on a video, saying “we spent at least 7 hours in the desert cold of the night and under the scorching sun, but we’re here because our blood runs for the flag.”

“We have money, we don’t need free tickets, we just want to get a ticket but the websites are not working,” a fan was captured saying.

Qatar regulations were modified on December 2, where now you can get the required “Hayya Card” without having a stadium ticket.
The Hayya Card is what fans use with a plane ticket to get to Qatar. Once in Doha, they either join the fan zones and partake in the festivities and atmosphere, or, enter a grueling line of supporters waiting to get a match ticket.

Fouad Rabii, who’s in Qatar said “It’s impossible, I’m in Doha and I’m just waiting for any update from social media communities if there is a way to get a ticket.”

Salwa Mafrahdine, who’s also in Doha told Hespress EN that “there are people who don’t have tickets, they wait 24, 12 or 8 hours before the game to get tickets, since some people don’t come to Doha or don’t attend, their ticket reservations get canceled, which automatically goes to whoever’s there early.”
These issues are amplified with the high demand for flights from Morocco. Since Morocco qualified to the semi finals, for many, it became a chance to witness history being made.

Royal Air Maroc provided 30 flights for Tuesday and Wednesday, which counts roughly 9000 plane tickets, to Doha International Airport when the Morocco National Team qualified to the semi finals.

Royal Air Maroc Maroc spokesperson told Hespress EN He said that while RAM can provide plane tickets, they are not responsible for neither the Hayya Card, nor the stadium tickets on the FIFA website.

He said his company is scrambling to organize trips. “We’re receiving many calls for tickets, it’s hard to reach our services due to the high demand.”
Some supporters have claimed to have bought a false ticket, or find that their ticket order was not approved with no explanations.