FRMF withdraws its appeal in Munir’s case

CAIRO – 24 December 2017: The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) has withdrawn its appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) of FIFA which aimed to allow Alavés’s striker Munir El Haddadi, who has both the Spanish and Moroccan nationalities, to play with the Moroccan national team.


Sources of the court confirmed on Friday to EFE that the claim of the FRMF has been withdrawn, and that "the TAS will not make any decision and the case is filed."

FRMF sources, according to the Spanish newspaper SPORT, explained to the Moroccan website AlYaoum24 that they have decided to provisionally renounce the TAS arbitration because the appeal was doomed to failure.

The FRMF officials said that, in any case, this does not mean the "abandonment" of Munir`s case, but that they simply missed the procedural channel to follow.

Alavés’s forward El Hadidi has indicated in an interview with EFE that the Moroccan Federation of Football called him and told him that he had a "chance to play" with them, despite having made his debut with the Spanish national team.

Born in San Lorenzo del Escorial in Madrid and to a Moroccan family, Alavés’ player, on loan from FC Barcelona this season, made his debut with the Spanish national team on September 8, 2014, when Vicente del Bosque was their coach, in a match in the qualifiers of Euro 2016 against Macedonia (5-1) where he played for 13 minutes. He didn’t, however, return to wear the shirt of La Roja.

El Haddadi didn`t want to assess his participation with Spain but he appreciated Vicente Del Bosque`s statement when he said: “I felt guilty that Munir cannot play with Morocco, I wish he could do so,” according to EFE.

So far this season, Munir has played 15 games with Alavés, 13 of them as a starter, and he has scored three goals.