2024-04-28 13:28:45
The meeting between the two officials mainly revolved around the organizational aspects of the next African Cup of Nations “CAN Côte d’Ivoire 2023”, and the stay of the Moroccan national team during this competition.
“As usual, relations between Ivory Coast and Morocco are healthy. And at the football level, we have always had fraternal confrontations,” indicated, on this occasion, the Moroccan diplomat.
He added that this meeting was an opportunity to take stock with the president of the FIF on the preparations for the CAN and on the different aspects concerning the organization of this continental football festival which will take place in a few weeks on Ivorian soil.
“We are delighted to have been enlightened by Mr. Yacine Idriss Diallo. All the information he has made available to us will allow us to prepare in the best possible way for the arrival of our national team in Côte d’Ivoire,” declared Mr. Kettani before adding: “we will work together in hand, fraternally so that this CAN is a great success.
He wanted to assure, at the same time, that the stay of the Atlas Lions will take place in better conditions.
The Moroccans, just like the Ivorians, have the ambition to win this cup, he said, affirming however that the most important “is the spectacle and the fraternity between the different participating countries”.
“That will therefore be the main thing, because we will have won, a united Africa, which wins and which advances hand in hand in sport and fraternity,” he insisted.
For his part, the president of the FIF expressed the hope that the other representatives of the participating countries will do the same, that is to say, immerse themselves in the organizational aspects of this CAN, known as “the CAN of hospitality” .
The 34th edition of the African Cup of Nations will be held from January 13 to February 11, 2024 in six stadiums spread across five cities in Côte d’Ivoire.
Initially scheduled for June and July 2023, CAN-2023 was postponed in order to avoid the matches taking place in the middle of the rainy season. It will take place in these stadiums: Abidjan (two enclosures), Bouaké (center), Korhogo (north), San Pedro (southwest) and the capital Yamoussoukro (center).
The Moroccan football selection inherited Group F, alongside its DR Congolese, Zambian and Tanzanian counterparts, following the draw for the group stage of the African Cup of Nations (CAN).
The Atlas Lions will play the group stage matches in the city of San-Pédro. They will face Tanzania in the first match.
The opening match of this CAN will pit the Ivorians against the Guinea-Bissau “Djurtus”, at the Ebimpé stadium, near Abidjan.
At the end of the draw, the Lion of the Atlas, Achraf Hakimi, who was alongside the Ivorian Didier Drogba, the Nigerian Mikel Obi, and the Lion of Téranga, Sadio Mané, to perform it, indicated that Morocco “will try to deliver a great performance, like the epic Qatari World Cup”.
“We have a good group, a good team. We will play for the title,” he said.
2024-04-28 13:28:45