The France-Morocco match is a study in ethnicity and nationality

Choosing a team to back during the FIFA World Cup and vocalising that support to the world has become almost ritualistic for us. Thus, we take to social media to post commentary and defend our teams of choice with all our might, irrespective of the capabilities of said teams. Argentina and Brazil, no doubt, draw highest in fan rankings. Despite not receiving the same level of love, the other teams still do have fanbases to draw support from. However, with France, things are a bit different.

A look at a social platform like Twitter during a match of France's reveals an element of opposition to its national team. This is certainly not due to lack of recognition of the defending champions and neither is it due to the unlikability of the players. Mbappe and Giroud, Lloris and Dembele are respected, even revered players, and yet their team remains one of the most antagonised. And the reason behind this? People believe that France is using players of African heritage to unfairly strengthen their team.

A majority of the players in the French national football team have African or Arab heritage. The star of this season, Kylian Mbappe has Cameroonian and Algerian roots. Paul Pogba, a notable French player who is not playing this season due to an injury, has Guinean parents. Decorated player Karim Benzema boasts Algerian heritage. Nevertheless, they were all born in France. They are French citizens, just like the white players of the team such as Giroud and Griezman.

But their team is still being criticised for having them as players and this points to people's idea that to be French is to be white.

After France's World Cup victory in 2018, Trevor Noah, the now ex-host of The Daily Show, said in a monologue, "Africa won the World Cup." This brought him under fire from the French Ambasador to the USA who accused him of robbing the players of their Frenchness. Although Noah's comment, at first glance, might seem to feed into the idea of a uniformly white French society, it is much more nuanced when put into context.

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The French idea of a modern, liberal society is one that is post-racial, i.e. where a person's race has no significance to their national identity. While they believe this to be a perfect solution to end discriminatory practices, this post-racial theory is fundamentally flawed. In taking away a person's racial identity, they are depriving them of their heritage and ethnic culture. Thus, Trevor Noah's quip, as he later explained, was made with the intention of letting the French-African players embrace their African roots.

Saying that these players shouldn't be playing for France because they are African or saying that they should be playing because they are only French both steal a part of these players' diverse heritages. The players are as much French as they are African and to play for France is a choice they made based on the nationality they identify with most, amongst a range of other reasons. 

Ironically, while France is being accused of using African players to become successful, the Moroccon team is being criticised for having players who were born outside of Morocco. Fourteen of Morocco's twenty-six players were born in European countries or Canada but have Moroccan heritage. The qualm against these individuals is that despite being a citizen of another nation, they choose to play for Morocco.

Keeping in mind the criticism of the French players, this seems hypocritical. The Moroccan players are choosing to represent a country their parents belong to and they feel strongly about. And their sentiments should be thoroughly respected. The racial and national backgrounds of these players are multi-faceted and certainly not as one-dimensional as belonging to one country or another. It is not for us to pass judgement on them because we cannot ultimately understand the complex reasons behind their decisions.

Zaima is a struggling student, a failed guitarist and a poet in need of better poetic ideas. Send her your sympathies at zaima2004adrita@gmail.com.