Moroccan fans try to force their way into the stadium against Spain

Moroccan fans desperate to watch their country’s World Cup match against Spain tried to break through a security cordon near the stadium on Tuesday, prompting riot police to push them aside and block the route, one official said. Reuters journalist.

Many Moroccan fans were looking for scarce tickets for the knockout match against 2010 champions Spain, hoping to see their team progress to the quarter-finals. The last Arab and African team left at the World Cup, Morocco have been coveted by some of the tournament’s most passionate fans.

But the Morocco matches have also been a test for the organizers. There was jostling outside the stadium as fans without tickets gathered ahead of the Dec. 1 loss to Canada, with some trying to scale the fence.

Ahead of Tuesday’s kickoff, security appeared tighter than at other games, with rows of riot police stationed on the ground and on horseback as fans walked towards the stadium.

Officials on the perimeter of the stadium shouted “Show your tickets please” to the approaching fans and guards checked the tickets before letting them through.

A crowd of ticketless Moroccans waited beyond the security cordon. “We’re hoping to get in,” said a man, who declined to be identified.

Some tried to push their way around the edge of the cordon, squeezing between the police and a fence.

There was shouting and shoving as more fans gathered and police on horseback advanced towards fans trying to enter.

“Brothers, you are wasting your time. There is no entrance here,” a security guard shouted into a megaphone as more and more fans gathered.

Reuters reached out to the committee responsible for World Cup security at Qatar’s Interior Ministry for comment, but there was no immediate response.

As the match began, many fans outside the stadium began watching on their mobile phones as a crowd of hundreds gathered, many still asking for tickets.

While Morocco, in the round of 16 for the first time since 1986, is the underdog, the support of its vociferous Red Clan fans has been seen as a huge asset in the first World Cup hosted by an Arab country.

The match can gain flavor from the familiarity of the opponents. Spain is visible from Morocco across the Straits of Gibraltar and thousands of Moroccans live there for work.

As a colonial power, Spain controlled areas of northern Morocco, as well as the disputed territory of Western Sahara, which Rabat sees as its own, and still retains two small North African enclaves in Ceuta and Melilla, which Rabat says it should relinquish.

Diplomatic ties improved this year after Morocco withdrew its ambassador to Spain in 2021 in a dispute over Madrid’s medical treatment of a Western Sahara separatist leader.

The Moroccan consulate in Spain urged supporters to “demonstrate sportsmanship regardless of the outcome” and to avoid doing anything that could trigger incidents with Spanish fans.

(Additional reporting by Bushra Shakhshir and Imad Creidi, Charlotte Bruneau, Ahmed El Jechtimi in Rabat and Angus McDowall in Tunis);