Wydad Faces Challenges as FAR Rabat Hijacks Karmoun Deal
Wydad’s summer, already heavy with legal battles and transfer bans, has just taken another hit. On the pitch, they have lost ground to a direct rival. Off it, the walls are closing in.
FAR Rabat strike as Wydad hesitate
Defender Ferji Karmoun looked set to wear Wydad’s red. The Casablanca club had moved early, secured the player’s approval and reached an understanding with Olympic Safi. It was the kind of proactive move their supporters had been demanding.
Then FAR Rabat arrived.
With their backline stripped by the departures of Yunis Abdelhamid and Nouh El Abd, the military club needed a defensive pillar. They didn’t just enter the race; they changed it. FAR put a bigger financial offer on the table, outmuscling Wydad and turning the transfer battle on its head.
The pressure told. Karmoun’s move to Wydad collapsed.
According to Moroccan outlet Sport7, Olympic Safi responded in the only way clubs tend to in such situations: they raised their demands. The new stance is simple and brutal. Karmoun will go to whoever pays the most. Sentiment and early agreements no longer count.
For Wydad, it is a painful reminder of how far their leverage has slipped.
FIFA rulings pile up
The bad news is not confined to the market.
FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber has issued a fresh ruling against Wydad in a case involving a former foreign player. It is not an isolated setback. This latest decision takes the number of final FIFA rulings against the club to five.
Each one is a bill that must be paid. Until they are, Wydad remain under a transfer ban that threatens to turn this summer from difficult to disastrous. The club cannot freely register new signings until those files are settled in full.
President Brahim El Assri has walked into a storm not of his own making. The previous administration under Hicham Ait Menna left behind a trail of disputes, and the new regime is now paying the price.
Sport7 reports that Wydad must deal with five cases at FIFA and more than seven others before the National Disputes Committee. That is not a legal backlog. It is a crisis calendar.
Every unresolved file is another obstacle between Wydad and a functioning squad for the coming season.
Benabid at the heart of the rebuild
Amid all the chaos, El Assri knows he cannot afford to lose the pillars he already has.
One of them is goalkeeper El Mehdi Benabid. While lawyers and administrators wrestle with old cases, the president has opened advanced talks to keep his No. 1 in Casablanca.
According to Le360 Sport, Wydad have tabled a new offer after rushing to clear all of Benabid’s outstanding financial dues. It is both a gesture and a strategy: pay what is owed, restore trust, then ask for commitment.
The ball is now with the player, who is expected to make his decision in the coming days. His choice will say a lot about how Wydad are viewed from the inside: as a club finally getting its house in order, or one still weighed down by the mistakes of the past.
A club racing the clock
El Assri is juggling two timelines. On one side, there are the legal and financial files stretching back over the “previous phase,” as described by local reports. Several players have already turned to the disputes committee, either to claim unpaid dues or to seek unilateral termination of their contracts.
On the other, the new season is fast approaching.
Wydad must settle multiple FIFA cases, resolve domestic disputes, protect their key men, and still find a way to reinforce a squad that just lost out on a target like Karmoun to a direct rival.
For a club of Wydad’s stature, the question is no longer whether they can attract talent. It is whether they can clear enough of the wreckage in time to register it.
