Monday, January 31, 2022 at 07:32• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 07:38

Willem van Hanegem has expressed himself in his weekly column in the General Newspaper addressed to the president of the Moroccan football association. Morocco lost 2-1 to Egypt after extra time on Sunday evening, as a result of which the country is eliminated from the Africa Cup. The subject of discussion is and remains the non-selection of Hakim Ziyech and Noussair Mazraoui. Van Hanegem couldn’t ignore it in his column either.

“That national coach Halilhodzic of Morocco did not want to take Ziyech and Mazraoui to that tournament,” emphasizes Van Hanegem in his piece. “Well, then you know if you die in the quarterfinals against Egypt, that the game is on the car. Wondering whether the federation chairman is still as behind his stubborn trainer about eight weeks before the World Cup qualification as he recently led us to believe I would just call on those two players if you just want to be there at the World Cup as a beautiful football country.”

Ziyech and Mazraoui have been at odds with national coach Vahid Halilhodzic for some time and were therefore not selected for the African country tournament. Morocco finished unbeaten in a group with Gabon, the Comoros and Ghana, but was eliminated by Egypt in the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup on Sunday evening. Afterwards, the discussion flared up again whether Halilhodzic’s decision not to select Ziyech and Mazraoui was such a wise one. At the end of March, Morocco must enforce qualification for the World Cup in the diptych with Congo (24 March and 29 March).

In addition to Halilhodzic, federation chairman Fouzi Lekjaa recently turned against Ziyech. “We expected Hakim to be a player who would take the national team by the hand and lead it to victories, not a player who waits to receive the ball without making any effort,” Lekjaa told a regional news agency. radio station. “I don’t want to go into details.” Halilhodzic accuses Ziyech, among other things, of being late, refusing to train and refusing to play. The last time the ex-Ajacied played for his native country was on June 12 in the friendly against Burkina Faso.