The prominent journalist Hafez al-Mirazi criticized Al-Arabiya channel for distorting the statements of Morocco’s goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, which caused turmoil and exchanges of accusations and electronic battles between Moroccans and Egyptians.
Under the title “Moroccan Team Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou: I Liked What Messi Did Against Egypt.. and I Wish Argentina Success“, the channel garnered thousands of views and hundreds of comments, most of which were a conflict between Moroccans and Egyptians.
The Egyptians attacked Bounou and Morocco, while Moroccans responded in defense of their star and their country.
The Truth
This conflict quickly turned out to be based on a distortion by the channel in search of views, visitors, and engagement, as it misrepresented and altered Bounou’s statement to make it appear as if he was attacking Egypt and its national team.
In reality, Bounou had an interview with an Argentine channel where the question was related to Messi. Accordingly, Bounou expressed his admiration for the player’s fighting spirit and how he managed to come back in the match despite missing a penalty, without even mentioning Egypt or insulting any of its team components or belittling them.
Bounou’s statement that Al-Arabiya channeled.. an interview with an Argentine media outlet regarding talking about Messi, but the Saudi channel decided to insert Egypt into the topic for unknown purposes pic.twitter.com/21WVCzjDGu
— Tanja7 (@Tanja7com) July 10, 2026
Al-Mirazi Accuses Al-Arabiya
The Egyptian journalist held the channel responsible, hinting that it was gleeful over the Egyptians but chose to distort the facts to send its messages to them indirectly. He said: “If Al-Arabiya channel is gleeful about the Egyptians, it would have been less offensive for them to express clearly or boldly any national feelings they have instead of trying to drive a wedge between the Egyptians and Moroccans by distorting what the Moroccan national team goalkeeper meant about his admiration for the fighting spirit of the Argentine player Messi, who was not discouraged by missing the penalty and continued to try until he achieved victory for his team. Yassine did not even mention the name ‘Egypt’! Is it appropriate for a site to write about some Saudis cheering for Messi, which is their right, even when he plays against the Egyptian team!“.
