The long saga of whether Munir El Haddadi can switch his national allegiance from Spain to Morocco is finally over after football’s world governing body Fifa confirmed his switch on Friday.
The 25-year-old has spent years trying in vain to play for the North Africans after initially being prevented from doing so because of a brief appearance he made for Spain in 2014.
Nonetheless, despite his previous failures to change allegiance – two of which he has unsuccessfully taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) – he is now free to play for Morocco.
“The Single Judge of the Players’ Status Committee has approved the following change of association: Munir El Haddadi, (to) Morocco (from) Spain,” a Fifa spokesperson told BBC Sport Africa.
For many years, the player popularly known as Munir had rued his brief substitute appearance – which lasted less than 15 minutes – in a European Championship qualifier against Macedonia.
At the time, Fifa’s rules barred players from changing national teams once they had played a competitive international.
When these rules were changed last September, meaning that that players aged under 21 can now swap national allegiances even if they had played up to three competitive games, the Morocco Football Federation (FMRF) hoped to take advantage.
Fifa amended its ruling following a proposal by the FMRF themselves, and in October the Moroccans were so certain of success that they named El Haddadi in their squad for friendlies that month.
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But in November, CAS upheld Fifa’s previous decision barring the Sevilla forward from swapping whereupon it seemed his dreams of representing the Atlas Lions were finally over.
The problem was that Munir – who was born in Spain and has a Moroccan father – had played for the Spanish Under-21 side after his 21st birthday, so making him ineligible.
That was the forward’s second failure at the CAS, who had rejected a previous attempt just prior to Morocco’s appearance at the 2018 World Cup.
Last week, before Fifa had publicly confirmed the transfer of allegiance, the Sevilla forward had announced he was finally free to play.
“I have just been informed that I can finally play for Morocco,” he said. “It is a pride for me to play for my country after all the work we have done to change my situation. I am very happy, and I have a strong desire to join the team.”
Munir could make his debut as early as next month when Morocco travel to Mauritania before hosting Burundi as they look to secure their qualification for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
The 1976 African champions, who lead Group E by five points, need just a point to go through. – BBC Sport
