{"id":42741,"date":"2026-03-06T12:04:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=42741"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:04:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:04:42","slug":"morocco-coach-regragui-quits-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=42741","title":{"rendered":"Morocco coach Regragui quits post"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Morocco coach Walid Regragui \u200bquit his job on Thursday, only three months ahead of the World Cup finals and ending weeks \u200cof speculation around his future as he said the team needed fresh guidance.<\/p>\n<p>The decision had been expected for weeks but was confirmed at a late night press conference where Regragui said the team &#8220;needed a new vision and a different energy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I sincerely believe \u200bthe team needs a new vision to be able to progress. My decision to leave is \u200bfor the better of the team,&#8221; said Regragui, who took Morocco to the \u2060World Cup semi-final in Qatar in 2022 and was also at the helm in January when they \u200blost in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations but has quit citing exhaustion.<\/p>\n<p>Mohamed Ouahbi will take over \u200bas coach, the Moroccan Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa announced at the same press conference. The Belgian-born Ouahbi was in charge when Morocco won the under-20 World Cup in Chile last year.<\/p>\n<p>The 50-year-old Regragui had been the target of supporter criticism \u200bdespite a stellar record of 36 wins in 49 matches with eight draws and only five losses \u200bsince taking over in September 2022.<\/p>\n<p>During that time Morocco recorded the best achievement by an African country at the \u200cWorld Cup \u2060and set a new world record for the most successive wins by a national team \u2013 a total of 19 between June 2024 and last December.<\/p>\n<p>Regragui had wanted to quit after Morocco lost a controversial Nations Cup final to Senegal in January in a tournament they hosted and where they were hoping to end \u200b50 years without success in \u200bthe continental championship.<\/p>\n<p>He said \u2060he was worn out after almost four years in the post but had been persuaded to delay his decision until Morocco decided on a successor.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco play \u200btwo friendly internationals later this month as they prepare for the World \u200bCup, which kicks \u2060off in June. They take on Ecuador in Madrid on March 27 and Paraguay in Lens, France four days later.<\/p>\n<p>At the World Cup, Morocco compete in Group C with Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.<\/p>\n<p>In a message to \u2060Regragui on social \u200bmedia, opens new tab, Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi said: \u201cThank you for the incredible \u200bwork you did leading the Moroccan national team. Your leadership, passion, and vision inspired not only the players, but also an entire \u200bcountry and millions of fans around the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Morocco coach Walid Regragui \u200bquit his job on Thursday, only three months ahead of the World Cup finals and ending weeks \u200cof speculation around his future as he said the team needed fresh guidance. The decision had been expected for weeks but was confirmed at a late night press conference where Regragui said the team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}