The altercation that marked Morocco’s second game in AFCON with DR Congo started with a handshake between Morocco’s coach Walid Regragui, and DRC captain Chancel Mbemba. Inappropriate exchanges of words and physical altercations escalated to what almost resulted in a serious incident. The incident has now made worldwide headlines.
According to Regragui, Mbemba verbally attacked him and his assistant on the sidelines before the match concluded, he said in an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe.
Regragui explained that despite the confrontation, he extended a handshake to Mbemba, questioning why he was being treated poorly. Mbemba then looked somewhere else as if to say to him, “I will not shake your hand,” which made Regraoui grab him by the hand as shown in the pictures.
Regragui claimed that Mbemba, instead of reciprocating the gesture, avoided the handshake and insulted him with racist remarks, leading to a physical altercation captured in pictures.
“I never uttered any racist words against him. He talks about religion, so let him be honest with himself,” Regragui said, responding to Mbemba’s post-match statements.
Mbemba refused to comment on the matter, saying that “God was a witness to the truth about the incident”. In a press conference, Walid Regragui tried to control the situation. “I have nothing to say about it. I have a lot of respect for Mbemba,” he explained.
Regragui expressed dissatisfaction, urging Mbemba to produce additional pictures to provide a more accurate account of the incident.
“Perhaps it’s the adrenaline that pushed him to react like that. There is no problem. I regret it because we did not portray a good image, neither us nor the DRC,” the national coach said.
X users are now accusing Walid Regragui of racism, claiming that the coach provoked Mbemba at the end of the game.
“By speaking in the way that he did, he is implying that my comments are racist; it is dishonest. Since he only talks about religion in his speech, he should be a little honest with himself,” said Regraugui to Le Figaro.
After these statements, Mbemba’s Instagram account was targeted by many Moroccan users who replied to his latest posts with monkey or gorilla emojis or wrote racist comments.
These comments stirred the controversy even further, causing many to sympathize with the DRC coach as they denounced Moroccans for their racism.
Several African users on X discussed how Moroccans believe they are better than other African nations. Being considered a targeted attack on the coach of DR Congo, the topic is currently being covered by several media outlets from this angle. Furthermore, Regragui is being blamed for the entire incident in other tweets that demonstrate videos of the fights.
In the same vein, the Moroccan player and captain of the national team, Romain Saiss, addressed the controversy in a lengthy Instagram story.
“Football is a sport. With tension, adrenaline, and much more. What’s certain is that what happens off the field stays on the field. We all make mistakes given the pressure and challenges,” said the player.
“We should stay united; we are all proud of representing Africa; we shouldn’t be divided over nonesense; and let’s show the brotherhood that unites our continent,” he concluded.
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