Tags : AFCON, 2025, Morocco flag, Patrice Motsepe, Football, CAF, Western Sahara,
CAF Exposes the Makhzen… When Football Topples the Maps of Royal Lies
By Qandyl Mohamed – Blogger, independent Moroccan human rights and political activist
This time, the world did not need a new UN report, nor an intervention in the Security Council, nor a statement from the Human Rights Council, to see the truth laid bare. It only needed a single map published by the African Football Confederation (CAF) — a simple, quiet map, without noise… yet it was enough to shatter the royal palace’s narratives from their roots. Morocco appeared as recognized by international legitimacy: without Western Sahara. Here, the so-called (( Great Conquest )) collapsed in one fell swoop, turning into a heavy-duty geographical joke.
CAF did nothing more than respect international law, yet this respect alone was a devastating slap on the face of a system that built its fake legitimacy over decades on visual deception… fabricated school maps, political weather broadcasts, poisoned tourist posters, and media channels acting as map-falsification workshops… all of this collapsed before a single official map that told the Makhzen: Western Sahara is not yours, and it will not be yours on the maps of international legitimacy, no matter how loud your propaganda machine shouts.
The 2797 resolution that the Makhzen tried to present as a ((“historic diplomatic conquest”)) suddenly revealed its true nature… a fig leaf covering a political nakedness. While the palace sells illusory victories to the people, the United Nations and the African Union continue to classify Western Sahara as a territory under decolonization, meaning no sovereignty, no ((“Moroccan”)), no ((“return”)), no ((“conquest”)), only a colonial occupation managed through propaganda.
The heavy irony is that this scandal did not occur in New York or Addis Ababa, but on Moroccan soil itself; in the heart of the domain controlled by the Makhzen, under the cameras of its paid media, in the presence of the palace, the ministers of its fragile regime, and its advisors, and in front of its security apparatus in all its hues, the map that exposed them all appeared, yet no one dared object, no ((clarifying statement)) was issued, and we heard no barking from the paid media outlets.
Suddenly, the Makhzen discovered that it is powerless against a football… but it is a football that respects international law more than the royal palace and its minions do. Here lies the core point: the Makhzen is not merely a political system, but an organized lie factory, producing maps as it produces statements, recycling slogans as it recycles faces… yet all this theater collapses when confronted with a single document outside its control. One map was enough to show that the ((sovereignty)) it boasts about is merely political paint over an occupation recognized by no one.
The Makhzen’s media mouthpieces, living off the palace’s scraps, found themselves exposed as well. For years, they filled the airwaves with patriotic speeches, attacked every voice that reminded of international legitimacy, and accused anyone speaking of Western Sahara as a territory under decolonization. Today, a single map made all those throats look like broken loudspeakers screaming into an empty hall.
CAF did not announce a political position, but it announced the truth… and that is the ultimate scandal: the truth alone is enough to topple a system built on falsification.
The African Football Confederation did not need a fiery speech or an aggressive statement; it simply relied on a map drawn according to international law, and the entire propaganda structure of the Makhzen collapsed.
The lesson is harsh and simple at once: you can buy recognition, pressure governments, fund campaigns, and muzzle voices, but you cannot change international law, nor redraw geography on the maps of international legitimacy.
Western Sahara will remain a territory under decolonization, and the Makhzen will remain a system living on falsifying reality, no matter how many masks it changes.
This time, football did not score a goal in a team’s net, but in the net of a complete royal-Makhzen narrative… a clean goal, no offside, no corrupt referee; a goal named Truth.
#Morocco #CAN2025 #Motsepe #Football #MoroccoFlag #WesternSahara