ZOOM meeting between presidents of the two leagues
ZOOM meeting between presidents of the two leaguesIsrael's Football League

President of Israel's Soccer Association, Oren Hasson, and the organization's vice-president, Avi Levy, held a historic ZOOM chat with their Moroccan counterpart, Fawzi Lakjaa, today (Thursday, December 31).

Following the cooperation agreement between the Israeli Soccer Associations and the UAE that came on the heels of the historic peace agreement between the two countries, the Israeli league has signed a similar deal with the Moroccan league, whose national team is considered one of the top squads worldwide and features some of the best-known international players.

Today's agreement was initiated by Israeli league Vice President Avi Levy and Leah Fadida Ben Sheetrit, entrepreneur for the renewal of the Jewish community in Morocco.

Morocco's President opened the virtual meeting by welcoming Israel's representatives to the summit. "I welcome this meeting we've been awaiting for so many years. Thanks to the brave undertaking of King Mohammed VI, we've also received an opportunity to strengthen the ties between our peoples through the game of soccer. I would like to invite you to Morocco to think of future cooperation between our countries, and of course to coordinate matches between our teams."

Hasson said in response: “I would like to thank you for the welcome initiative. We are excited and see tremendous importance in strengthening the ties and cooperation between the associations. There are hundreds of thousands of citizens in Israel with Moroccan roots and this development is a very fortunate one for them. We have a lot to learn from you and our own contributions to make. I thank you for the invitation to visit Morocco and would be more than happy to host you and the representatives of your league in Israel. Thanks to the courageous steps taken by our heads of State, we have a rare opportunity to offer a better future to the next generation and set a solid example for other leagues. A game between the Israeli and Moroccan national teams will be a significant achievement and I have no doubt that things will continue to thrive in other arenas. For us, this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship."

At the end of the meeting, Hasson and Lakjaa agreed to designate league representatives to begin work promoting a game between the two national teams with the coming days.