The Team in Morocco promotes the positive social transformation of disenfranchised communities through the fictionalized story of a Moroccan soccer/football* team and its players as they confront interpersonal and societal problems and challenges both on and off the field. The underlying goal is to provide young people from marginalized communities with positive messages that encourage active civic participation, tolerance, mutual understanding, and moderation.
The Team Morocco - Season 1 Trailer
The Team
By targeting young people, the show reaches out to the largest segment of Moroccan society. The median age of Moroccans is 25 years old, with 57 percent of the population below the age of 29, and 28 percent falling into the 15-to-29 age group.
The series is supported by a national outreach campaign led by 50 dialogue facilitators trained by Search for Common Ground in Morocco. The facilitators will host community sessions to discuss the issues tackled in the series. The Team in Morocco has launched a website – a social networking space at http://www.tanmia.ma/lequipe/ that incorporates an interactive blog, photos, videos and other links – and an extensive campaign to diffuse the show’s messages through the local press.
The community outreach campaign works primarily with youth in poor marginalized communities, focusing on empowering them to become more actively engaged citizens. These youth often feel marginalized, excluded and powerless. The Team’s outreach campaign is engaging them in positive, constructive dialogue – giving them more opportunity to voice their opinions and be heard. A consistent theme throughout the series is that young people must have the opportunity to actively participate in society if there is to be positive social change in Morocco, and in their own lives.
With technical support and content oversight from Common Ground Productions, the series was written and produced by Ali N Productions, owned by Nabil Ayouch, a well-known and successful film producer and director in Morocco. Ali N Productions produces fictional feature-length films, documentaries, advertisements, video clips, photographs, and television broadcasting of sitcoms, television series, and short programs.
* The sport known as soccer in the United States will hereafter be referred to as football, as it is known in the rest of the world.
Facts about The Team in Morocco:
Season 1 is being broadcast on SNRT, a national television channel.
The show is televised in Darija, the Arabic dialect of the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya).
It is estimated that a large majority of the 30 million people of Morocco will watch the series.
The outreach campaign, done in partnership with civil society organizations throughout the country, reaches out to Moroccan schools, youth centers, local NGOs, and prisons.
Videos & Photos
The Team Morocco - Theme song: 'Koora' by Mazagan
The Team in Morocco has created a theme song – “Koora” by Mazagan – and music video. Mazagan is known for revolutionizing Moroccan popular music – reggae, raga, chaâbi, rock, alaoui, jazz, funk, zook – by creating “chaâbi-groove,” which mixes rural singing with urban sound. The group consists of eight musicians, including lead singer Issam Kamal – a former economist – on vocals, guitar, mandolin and composition.
Koora Lyrics
Thanks to Sportsmanship, we are now a team after being enemies Oh Mankind, the ball is a rotary, today is your turn tomorrow it will be mine
Aziz Bouderbala, former footballer and star of The Team in Morocco
We are all playing football Oh my brothers, we have a free team (Refrain)
Oh my sons, old or young Football is for all people A mason, a minister, a doctor or a lawyer Just trust us and let us play a great match
(Refrain)
Mehdi and Samir are together thanks to football spirit, Health and money, authority and beauty Everything will perish but the good
