Midweek Mashup – Morocco, 1997-2000

Morocco’s friendly against Brazil in October of 1997 was notable for the debuting of a new kit.

Having switched from adidas to Puma, they were in a smart all-red outfit that featured a green bar, trimmed in white, across the upper body.

As a design, it would prove durable – the following season, Lazio (at the height of their spending power) would be given it following their move to Puma and in 1999-2000 it would provide the basis for Leeds United’s away and third strips.

Equally, Morocco would use that style for the guts of three years, in quite a few colour combinations.

The red kit was the primary choice for the 1998 African Nations Cup while an all-white version was the second kit – during the tournament, a white-white-red mix was used against South Africa.

Red-green-green was used against France in the Hassan II tournament prior to the 1998 World Cup, but then it seems green became the primary colour.

In France, all-green was worn against Norway in the opening group game, then – perhaps surprisingly – all-white against Brazil and white-green-white in the 3-0 win over Scotland that unfortunately wasn’t enough to secure qualification for the last 16.

In 1999, green-red-red was worn against Guinea and green-red-green against Belgium. While a new strip was introduced for the 2000 AFCON, the older style remained for Olympic qualifiers and green-white-white appeared in a game against Côte d’Ivoire.

After a stint with adidas (2012-18), Morocco are of course back with Puma – albeit with red’s primacy restored – and the kit worn as they reached the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup took inspiration from this design.

The two colourways in which the home shirt was seen at that competition – red-green-red default and red-green-white against France in the semi-final – did not appear during the 1997-2000 era, as far as we’re aware.