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Seven Dutch players lived a nightmare in Morocco after they were approached by Chabab Rif Al Hoceima, a Moroccan professional league club. In an article published by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, the football players said that in July 2018 they were signed by the Moroccan club.
The players were expected to receive an annual salary, ranging from 60,000 to 100,000 euros, after signing a contract with the club. However, the seven Dutch footballers did not receive a penny from their salaries, got banned from training and were incited to leave the club only four months after flying to Al Hoceima.
It all started when they were contacted by Mounir El Hamdaoui, a Moroccan-Dutch retired footballer who joined Chabab Al Hoceima as a technical director during the same period. Reassured by the presence of a Dutch player, such as El Hamdaoui, and a Dutch-Moroccan coach, Simon Ouaali, the players decided to accept the club’s offer.
A nightmare in Al Hoceima
However, once in Al Hoceima their expectations were met with disappointment. The first incident took place in July, when Guy Ramos, Toni Varela, Mawouna Amevor, Rafik El Hamdi, Abderrahim Loukili, Karim Loukili and Abdelmalek El Hasnaoui were sent to their first training camp with the club.
The players went to Tangier for a four-week training camp but a few days later they were surprised by the fact that they couldn’t make it to their hotel rooms. The newspaper, which spoke to the Dutch players, reported that they were prevented from entering the hotel as the club couldn’t pay the bill.
The players felt that the situation in Tangier was not reassuring, especially that they couldn’t receive a part of the money as they were promised. Shortly after their trip to Tangier, one of the seven players realized that El Hamdaoui left the club and that he started training S.B.V. Excelsior, a professional football club based in Rotterdam.
Things got worse since then. According to the same newspaper, the situation of the players changed after the club’s president got sacked. The new president decided to fire the Dutch-Moroccan coach. The club then urged the Dutch players to leave in exchange of their two months’ salaries. «Consider this a long vacation», Rafik El Hamdi and Abderrahim Loukili were told by the club.
No money, no contract
Refusing to leave the club before receiving their money, the players were provoked and intimidated by to just abandon everything and leave, which would have been seen as a breaching of their contract. After playing a series of games with Chabab Al Hoceima, the Dutch players were told they were behind the club’s defeats and were asked to sign documents in Arabic, which they couldn’t read.
The Dutch footballers were also told that their contract, which don’t have on them, has been terminated and that they were no longer part of the club. Indeed, the players told NRC that they were banned from joining training camps and were not allowed to train at the club’s facilities.
Trying to get a copy of their contract, the players realized that it was falsified and that a couple of pages were added to it.
The players left the club in October, 2018, filing a complaint against the Moroccan club. Two of them sought the help of FIFA to get their money back while two others reached the Royal Moroccan Football Federation.
Simon Ouaali and Chababa Rif Al Hoceima couldn’t be reached for a comment, said NRC, adding that Mounir El Hadioui refused to comment on the topic.
