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Football

18th Dec 2022

Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi confronted Gianni Infantino after Croatia loss

Callum Boyle

FIFA reportedly want the footage deleted.

Morocco star Achraf Hakimi confronted FIFA president Gianni Infantino after his side’s third place play-off defeat to Croatia on Saturday, with FIFA reportedly wanting the footage deleted.

Hakimi and his teammates shocked the world as Morocco, the first African nation to reach the semi finals of the World Cup, ended their campaign with a 2-1 defeat to Croatia as goals from Josko Gvardiol and Mislav Orsic securing the win for the European nation.

Despite missing a host of chances throughout the game, Morocco were left furious with the officiating at the Khalifa International Stadium.

One of the most controversial decisions that went against the Atlas Lions was the failure to award a penalty, after they alleged that Youssef En-Nesyri’s header hit Bruno Petkovic’s hand, only for replays to show it hit the Dinamo Zagreb forward’s back.

They were also left fuming after they alleged that Hakimi was fouled by Petkovic, however, Qatari referee Abdulrahman Al-Jassim waved play on.

BeIN Sports reported that Hakimi pleaded with Infantino at full time – who was there to hand out the medals – about the standard of refereeing in a “polite and desperate” fashion.

It’s also been alleged that FIFA have asked for the footage of the exchange between the Paris Saint-Germain right back and Infantino to be deleted so that it doesn’t reach the public eye.

“They wanted us to delete the images,” SVT Sports reporter Johan Kucukaslan said.

“It is clear that these are embarrassing scenes for them, and it is a bit naive of them to think that a dozen journalists should not report on this when we witness it happening.”

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