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Thursday, 24 February, 2005, 18:41 GMT

Moroccans pass the buck

Fabian Barthez The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) have decided to wash their hands of the Fabian Barthez spitting affair, preferring instead to pass the case on to the French authorities.

The FRMF have been in a quandary all week as to how to deal with the volatile France goalkeeper after he spat at the referee during Marseille's friendly against Wydad Casablanca on 12 February.

No decision was taken when the matter was discussed by the FRMF's disciplinary committee on Tuesday.

After looking at the case again on Thursday the FRMF announced it was passing the problem on to Fabian's domestic federation.

"The federal bureau has studied this case and decided in the near future to write to the French Football Federation," a FRMF spokesman.

"In the letter the FRMF won't be taking a position on Fabian Barthez' behaviour.

"They'll inform their French counterparts of what happened at the match, notably the behaviour of which the French keeper is accused of by referee Abdullah El Achiri."

Barthez has already been handed an undisclosed punishment by his club for losing his temper in the 80th minute of the Casablanca friendly which descended into mayhem after Marseille's Frederic Dehu was sent off.

A mass brawl between the two sides followed with Barthez, who had been substituted at the time, getting up off the bench and confronting El Achiri.

World football's governing body Fifa have come down hard on similar incidents of abuse against referees in the past.

Italian striker Paolo Di Canio was handed an 11-match ban for shoving a referee to the ground when playing for Sheffield Wednesday against Arsenal in 1998.



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Related to this story:

Morocco postpones Barthez case (23 Feb 05 |  African )
Morocco 5-1 Kenya (09 Feb 05 |  African )
Morocco aim to host Nations Cup (24 Dec 04 |  African )


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