Carried away by euphoria: Why Morocco's win matters to so many others

After one red card, a stretcher and several injuries, the Moroccan team was at a disadvantage. Because, at that point, closing in on the 90th minute of the football match, they were without most of its star players. 

"A patched-up team," said the commentator, was playing on the quarter-finals pitch against Christiana Ronaldo's Portugal on Saturday night. 

But the Moroccans persevered in a momentous spectacle of grit, and went on to cause the latest upset in this World Cup by becoming the first-ever African team to reach the semi-finals in the Fifa World Cup's nearly 100 years of history. 

A mammoth moment in sports history, "a landmark match" which will bear geographical and political implications, said the commentator. That certainly rings true. Morocco is not just the first-ever African country to reach the semi-finals, it is also the first Arab team to achieve this feat, and they did it in the first Arab country to host the World Cup. 

A victory for the region

In the race for soft power – which is, essentially, the "power of attraction through culture, political ideas, and policies rather than coercion" that military hard power exhibits – Qatar stepped up to invest in hosting the World Cup. 

'Soft power' was coined by American political scientist Joseph Nye Jr in the late 1980s. This, with time, evolved into piqued interests – particularly from smaller countries – in hosting international sporting events because an event like the World Cup is likely to create vast and wide scope for exposure. Millions attend the Fifa World Cup, and this year, millions came to Qatar, possibly for the first time, to watch the games. 

"This is also part of Qatar's branding efforts, along with migrant worker reforms, because it wants to be associated with the modern Arab state, like a Singapore of the Middle East," said Dr Danyel Reiche, a Visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown University Qatar where he leads a research initiative on the Fifa World Cup 2022.

And it is not just Qatar. There has been a shift in foreign policy throughout the Middle East. For instance, Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates saw massive economic boom and facelifts starting in the early 2000s, while Saudi Arabia started to make strides in 2017 in its own national policies and laws – many centring on women's rights – under the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman. 

These countries in the Middle East walk a tightrope to take their place in the global arena. While they make investments to host international events and invite countries or individuals from the West, they have to pave strategic paths to strike a balance between their politics, culture and Western values. 

Qatar's stance on LGBTQ is a glaring feature at the World Cup attesting to this. In December 2020, Qatar announced that it would comply with Fifa rules of promoting tolerance and rainbow flags would be allowed in stadiums at the 2022 World Cup. However, as we know, at the onset of the World Cup, rules were set banning LGBTQ symbols. 

The Portugal vs Uruguay group stage match saw an intruder on the pitch carrying a rainbow flag, while the Tunisia vs France group stage match saw an intruder carrying a Palestinian flag. 

In fact, Palestinian flags have made quite a few guest appearances at this World Cup, mainly at the stadiums and outside. The most significant appearance was probably when Morocco hoisted the flag after its 2-1 victory over Canada in the group stages. 

Palestinian flags roam free on Qatari streets and FreePalestine slogans are often chanted at these World Cup events. Possibly in no other international sporting event has Palestine taken up this much space. 

This time for Africa 

According to the Fifa website, the only other African country to have qualified and played in the World Cup more times than Morocco is Cameroon, appearing eight times, while this year is the Atlas Lion's sixth World Cup participation, tied with Nigeria.  

One of the most prominent matches and biggest upsets to mark the ascension of African football in the World Cup is Cameroon's (playing only their second World Cup) victory against Argentina in 1990. They then went on to beat Romania and qualified for the knockouts.

Then there were Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010, close to making history but faltering in the end. Thirteen countries had made 48 attempts over 88 years, but an African team had never reached the World Cup semi-finals till 10 December 2022.  

Nonetheless, African-origin players have featured heavily in both of France's World Cup wins. 

Football in the last three decades has had a major social, cultural and economic impact on Africa. The most popular sport in the continent, it is considered the greatest unifier. 

Its popularity is immense. For instance, according to a Quartz report, the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) 2021 was broadcast in over 157 countries, with a viewership of 65 million in Nigeria alone. The matches also gained high levels of engagement on various social media platforms such as TikTok, which garnered a whopping 2.5 billion views under the afcon2021 hashtag.

In the past few decades, African football teams and players have gained a solid international reputation. Today, more than 100 footballers from all over Africa play on first-division professional football teams in Europe, South America and the United States.

And this year, Morocco's sensational wins against European powerhouses Belgium, Spain and Portugal (draw with Croatia) and victory over North American Canada, not only make history, but also cement Africa's ascension. 

Underdog wins also lay the groundwork to dismantle the inferiority complex, inspire hope and make things very interesting. Among the semi-finalists (two Europeans, one South American and one first-ever African team), Morocco is the perfect embodiment of an underdog at this stage of the World Cup.   

Many football aficionados feel this has been one of the most exciting World Cups in recent history. And why not, many of us (in our 30s) did not see this many upsets in the group stages, and beyond the World Cup, in our lifetimes. The ascension of Asia (mainly spearheaded by Japan) and Africa - or more accurately, the ascension of the underdogs, has certainly made things much more interesting. 

Nusmila Lohani. Sketch: TBS