Casablanca derby

Casablanca derby

Locale	Casablanca, Morocco
Teams	Raja Casablanca Wydad Casablanca
First meeting	Raja 1–0 Wydad Botola (1956)
Latest meeting	Raja 1–1 Wydad Botola (14 April 2018)
Stadiums	Stade Mohamed V
Statistics
Most wins	Raja Casablanca (43)
Most player appearances	Mohamed Oulhaj (Raja)
Top scorer	Saïd Ghandi (Raja)
Largest victory	Raja 5–1 Wydad Throne Cup (1996)

The Casablanca derby (Arabic: الدربي البيضاوي‎) is a derby between the Moroccan football clubs Raja and Wydad. Matches are played in the Stade Mohamed V, often containing a fierce and vibrant crowd.

The Casablanca derby has extensive national media coverage and is a topic of debate for several days before and after the match between the fans of both clubs, whether in the streets, schools or workplace.

Incidents and memorable matches

As in most of the world's derbies, riots and fights can take place before, during and especially after a major game.

The first match between the two rival was in 1956 in which Raja won 1-0. The second match was won by Wydad 3-0 in 1957.

In 1978, Raja players withdrew from the match against Wydad during the last minutes of the second-half because they were mistreated after conceding a penalty with a red card to their goalkeeper. The game ended by a score of 1-0 for Wydad.^[1]

In 1996, Raja won 5-1 in the quarter-finals of the 1995–96 Coupe du Trône, this score is the highest between the two rivals.

On April 6, 2001, Wydad initially won the match by 3–0, but Raja complained about the illegal participation of the substitute Abdelhaq Ait Laarif who was registered with both Wydad and Étoile de Casablanca. The Moroccan federation accorded the win to Raja.^[2]

On September 29, 2001, during the 100th derby which was part of the semifinals for the Moroccan Throne Cup (Coupe du Trône), Youssef Belkhouja, a Wydad player, died on the lawn of Mohammed V Stadium, due to a heart attack.

On 24 May 2006, there was a fierce competition between the two rivals to clinch the league title. Raja scored first with a penalty by Abdellatif Jrindou, that result would have given Raja the title; but at the end of the match (at the 90+4 minute), a staggering strike from a long distance by the defender Hicham Louissi gave Wydad the draw needed to win the league for the 11th time after 13 years of the last cup.^[3]

On October 20, 2007, during an encounter between rival team supporters, Hamza Eddali, a Wydad fan who was 17, died at the Casablanca derby. Hamza Eddali is to date the last person killed in the Casablanca derby.

On April 18, 2010, after Raja beat Wydad with a score of one to none, a fight broke out between Wydad and Raja fans, resulting in injuries and property damage. Over one hundred people were arrested.^[4]

On 2014, Wydad requested from the Royal Moroccan Football Federation to count the 5 titles that the club won in the championship organized during the Colonial Era in Morocco by french authorities before the creation of the Moroccan federation in 1956. The federation accepted this request and so, increased the number of titles of Wydad from 12 to 17. Wydad is the only club in Morocco to have his titles from the colonial era (before 1956) admitted by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation.

Results

As of 15 April 2018^[5]

Note: Wydad Casablanca won the Coupe de l'Indépendance, a football tournament organized in Morocco in 1956, year of independence; in order to distribute the Moroccan clubs into different divisions for the first season of the post-independence championship.