Botola Pro: Moroccan federation suspends four referees over poor officiating

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation has suspended four referees, citing poor officiating in two league games from Morocco’s top flight Botola Pro.

The National Technical Directorate of Arbitration fined two main referees and two Video Assistant Referees, barring them from handling league matches for a few rounds.

The directorate stated that errors were made by the referees in the week-one game between IR Tanger and Hassania Agadir, and the week-two encounter between Raja Casablanca and FAR Rabat. The matches saw grave officiating mistakes, leading the directorate to take bold action to penalize the referees involved in the ties.

Amin Maataoui, who handled the game between IR Tanger and Hassania Agadir, was suspended for one match. The VAR referee for this tie, Jamal Basri, was suspended for two games. The center referee for Raja and FAR Rabat, Mohsen Sourdi, was penalized for two games while VAR referee Abdelmoulem Baslam was fined for the next three league outings.

The recent heavy fines by the directorate are said to have been taken within the framework of its commitment to maintaining fair competition at the national level. Morocco is one of the few nations that has been using VAR technology in the domestic football scene.