Morocco’s football club FAR is facing widespread criticism and calls for a boycott after suing a cancer-stricken fan for posting negative comments about the club’s management.
The fan, identified as A.E., was arrested last week after sharing a series of posts on Facebook criticizing the club’s management. Sources told Barlaman Today that the arrest occurred just days after A.E. was diagnosed with cancer.
In response to the incident, the online FAR fan club, Jomhour Al Assima, issued a statement on Monday condemning the arrest.
“It is a source of great pain to see what the management of the Royal Army Club is doing to dedicated supporters who speak passionately about their club,” the post reads.
The fan page, which boasts over 29,000 followers, emphasized that the management of FAR should recognize that differences of opinion are a “blessing” and do not “spoil amicability.”
“We express full solidarity with our brother, who is suffering from a serious illness, and we wish him a speedy recovery,” the fan club wrote.
The fan club further urged FAR’s management to “drop the complaint against him soon” and to “stop filing complaints as they harm the reputation of the club and its supporters.”
“No club in the world has ever complained about its supporters for defending the team, criticizing it, or demanding its strengthening,” the statement added.
The case has garnered widespread attention online, with netizens calling on the football club to drop the lawsuit given the fan’s special circumstances.
Others have even called for boycotting the team’s matches until A.E. is released.
“I add my voice to the fans in boycotting the matches of the team of my heart until the release of the military supporter,” one netizen wrote, commenting on the post from the fan club.