Exploring National Identity in World Sports: A Thematic Analysis of Media Portrayals of Morocco’s National Team in the 2022 FIFA World Cup

Elham Abdullah Ghobain, Rania Mjahad and Suha Alansari

SAGE Open, 2025, vol. 15, issue 2, 21582440251340174

Abstract: This paper examines the mediated construction of Moroccan sporting identity in the English-language Western press, focusing on the media coverage of the Moroccan football squad during the FIFA 2022 World Cup. The team’s remarkable success captured significant global attention, prompting an exploration of how the media represented their national and cultural identity. Employing a constructive lens and thematic analysis, the study analysed a timely corpus of 32 feature articles from major outlets. An A.I. tool was utilised to verify the consistency and reliability of themes derived from traditional thematic analysis. The alignment of themes from both approaches enhances the study’s credibility, validating narratives constructed around the Moroccan national team. The findings reveal a nuanced portrayal of Moroccan national identity shaped by language, religion and familial ties while also highlighting the influence of politics and history. Notably, while the Moroccan national team fosters unity among fans through shared cultural, linguistic, and regional ties, underlying domestic conflicts related to national language and ethnicity persist. This research contributes to the literature on media, sport and national identity, underscoring the complex interplay of these elements within the context of global sporting events.

Keywords: sporting identity; national identity; Moroccan national team; thematic analysis; Men’s World Cup (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440251340174 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:21582440251340174

DOI: 10.1177/21582440251340174

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().