Morocco coach Walid Regragui to serve 4 match suspension following DR Congo incident in AFCON 2023

Morocco will face South Africa in the round of 16

Walid Regragui, the manager of Morocco, will miss four games after a confrontation with Chancel Mbemba, the defender for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Following the Atlas Lions endured a 1-1 draw against Morocco on Sunday during their Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2023) match, ugly scenes broke out at full time.

L’Equipe claims that Walid Regragui visited Mbemba to shake hands before the altercation started, but things got intense fast and both teams ran onto the pitch as the altercation intensified.

A video of the altercation between players and staff shows them pursuing each other into the restrooms as the bad blood continued down the passageway.

He was prohibited from the Atlas Lions’ next two games, which included their 1-0 triumph over Zambia on Wednesday night, even though two of his game bans had been deferred for a year. Regragui stated, as reported by L’Equipe and Morocco World News: “I held his hand, and as is evident in pictures and the widely circulated videos, he started screaming.”

In an announcement, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) declared that it would look into the situations that occurred after the games. The Congolese Football Federation and the Royal Moroccan Football Federation were declared “guilty of separate charges” by a disciplinary jury.

Regragui, however, has since spoken out, saying that he “regretted” the on-field incident.

In addition, the CAF fined both associations £15,716 ($20,000) and the 48-year-old football coach £3,929 ($5,000).

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation declared that they would appeal the ruling, citing it as “unfair” and claiming that “coach Regragui did not violate the values of Fair play at any moment.”

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L’Equipe was told by Regragui:

‘I respect the coach who is a great man. The TV cut the videos, but I have them.

‘I don’t need to swing them. I keep my silence, it’s better, that’s how I am. Everyone knows me, I respect everyone, I don’t need to shoot anyone but God’s justice is there.’

So if he has images other than what we see on television, let him take them out, with pleasure. And he’ll see exactly what happened. And that’s what happened… Before I went to shake his hand, he took me and my assistant to task on the sidelines before the end of the game, he spoke badly to us. And Desabre knows it.

‘And at the end, despite that, I’m going to shake his hand and say, “Why are you talking to me like that?”

‘And then he looks away, like “I’m not shaking your hand”. I held his hand, you can see it on the pictures, and he started screaming all over the place.

“I said, “You’re telling it to yourself!” And he’s like, “You called me an idiot!” It’s okay that he heard that, even though I never said it, but by speaking the way he did, he’s implying that my words are racist, it’s dishonest.

‘Since he only talks about religion in his speech, let him be a little honest with himself.’

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