Wydad Faces Setback as FAR Rabat Secures Karmoun Deal
Wydad’s summer, already clouded by legal battles and a transfer ban, has taken another hit. This time, the blow came from the pitch – or more precisely, from a rival boardroom in Rabat.
FAR Rabat strike as Wydad hesitate
Defender Ferji Karmoun looked set to wear Wydad’s red. The Casablanca club had moved early, secured the player’s approval and reached an understanding with Olympic Safi. It was the kind of clean, decisive move their fans have been crying out for.
Then FAR Rabat arrived.
Needing to rebuild a back line stripped of Yunis Abdelhamid and Nouh El Abd, the military club stepped into the race with intent. They didn’t talk about ambition; they put it on the table. A bigger financial offer than Wydad’s, according to Moroccan outlet Sport7, and suddenly the deal shifted.
What had seemed a formality for Wydad collapsed. The door that had been half-open to Casablanca swung towards Rabat.
Sensing the new dynamic, Olympic Safi changed their stance. No more verbal priority, no more soft commitments. They decided Karmoun would go to the highest bidder, turning the chase into a straight financial shootout between rivals at a time when Wydad are hardly in a position to blink first.
FIFA rulings pile pressure on Wydad
Off the pitch, the numbers look even worse.
FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber has issued another ruling against Wydad in a case involving a former foreign player. It is the fifth final decision now stacked against the club, each one a reminder of old debts and older mismanagement.
Those rulings are not just legal footnotes. They are the barrier between Wydad and the future they are trying to build. Until the files are settled in full, the transfer ban stays, and new signings cannot be registered.
President Brahim El Assri is now racing the calendar. He has inherited a mess from the previous administration under Hicham Ait Menna: a backlog of cases, unpaid dues, and contracts that have pushed players towards legal action rather than negotiation.
Sport7 reports that Wydad must deal with five FIFA cases and more than seven others before the National Disputes Committee. Each file is a bill that must be paid before the club can breathe again in the transfer market.
Holding on to what they have
With the external market complicated and rivals circling, Wydad’s most realistic victory this summer may be internal: keeping their best players.
Top of that list is goalkeeper El Mehdi Benabid. While lawyers and administrators wrestle with FIFA and national committees, El Assri is also locked in what could be the club’s most important negotiation of the window.
According to Le360 Sport, Wydad have launched advanced talks to renew Benabid’s contract. The club moved quickly to settle all of his outstanding financial dues, a necessary gesture in a dressing room that has seen too many disputes spill into formal complaints.
A new offer is now on the table. Benabid will make his final decision in the coming days, a short window that could define Wydad’s stability at the back for the season ahead.
Around him, other players have already taken the legal route, turning to the disputes committee to claim unpaid sums or push for unilateral contract termination. Each case is another reminder that Wydad’s problems are not just about who they can sign, but who they can keep.
The new management has no choice but to keep grinding through the crises, one file at a time. The league season is closing in. The question is no longer how boldly Wydad can strengthen, but whether they can clear enough of the rubble to stand firm when the first whistle blows.
