Your dad is not wrong. I even have written on it once.
Morocco shows up as MAR on scoreboards because FIFA's country codes do not always come from the English name.
A lot of them come from French, which is the working language FIFA has used since it was founded in Paris in 1904. Morocco in French is Le Maroc. First three letters: MAR.
And Morocco is not alone. This happens more than people realise.
Germany is GER, which tracks in English. But then you get to Ivory Coast, which shows up as CIV, from Côte d'Ivoire. Algeria is ALG from Algérie. Haiti is HAI from Haïti. Switzerland is SUI from Suisse. Spain is ESP from España. Iran appears as IRN.
The pattern runs across the entire scoreboards.Some countries are also coded based on whatever their language is.
FIFA built its codes in an era when French dominated international administration, and colonial history shaped which language a country's name was recorded in first.
That legacy is still sitting quietly on every scoreboard at this World Cup.
I hope you have learned something today.
My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.
Mum: Nikaangalia umri wa huyu mwanamke, kweli nilichoka. Na vile nilichoka na nikaona Kijana yangu anampenda nikaona sitaingilia.
Son: Gari huoni body unaangalia engine. 😂😂😂😂
La próxima vez que NO te guste tu vida, recuerda que todo depende de la perspectiva.
Tengo un amigo que lee 2-3 libros a la semana, entrena 3 veces al día, no tiene problemas de dinero y hay gente queriendo acostarse con él todo el tiempo.
Y aun así no para de quejarse de lo mucho que odia la cárcel.
Qué lindos son los penales, la puta madre. Todo en la vida debería definirse por penales. La ley del aborto...por penales. Te quiere coger un travesti?... tres penales cada uno, y así.
In the 1960s the CIA spent $20 million turning a cat into a spy. Project Acoustic Kitty.
An actual cat. surgically modified. with a microphone in its ear canal, a radio transmitter at the base of its skull, and a wire antenna woven through its fur all the way to its tail.
the project was called Operation Acoustic Kitty.
the idea: cats wander freely near embassies and parks without raising suspicion. a cat sitting near two Soviet diplomats on a bench is just a cat. a cat with a transmitter in its skull is an intelligence asset.
the technical challenges were enormous. this was the 1960s. no microchips. the CIA had to miniaturize a microphone, transmitter, battery, and antenna small enough to fit inside a living animal that still had to look like a normal cat.
they solved most of it.
then discovered the cat kept wandering off whenever it got hungry. so they performed a second surgery to suppress its hunger drive.
the CIA surgically rewired a cat's brain because it wanted snacks.
five years. $20 million. additional hunger-suppression surgery. the cat was finally ready.
1966. Washington DC. a park near the Soviet Embassy on Wisconsin Avenue. two men on a bench. CIA agents in an unmarked van filled with surveillance equipment. they opened the door and released their operative.
the cat walked ten feet and was hit by a taxi.
the CIA's internal memo described the project as a "remarkable scientific achievement" and praised the team for proving that cats could be trained to move short distances.
the memo that declared a $20 million program dead called it a remarkable achievement.
then concluded: given "environmental and security factors" cats would "not be practical" for intelligence work.
the CIA spent five years and $20 million to discover that cats don't follow orders.
anyone who has ever owned a cat could have told them.
Skills that have nothing to do with money but are worth dedicating an immense amount of practice to:
- semen retention
- disciplining the gaze
- breaking bloodline patterns
- manual labour daily
- decrypting dreams
- digesting Gods silence
- swallowing humiliation consciously
- transmuting sexual rage
- blessing an enemy sincerely
- navigating feminine deception
- entertaining madness sober
- obeying nothing internally but your will
- holding power unannounced
- reading bone structure
- starving the character
- feeding the shadow
- choosing pain voluntarily
- refusing comfort during grief
- commanding your fear verbally
- sitting inside guilt until it teaches you
- walking at night
- reading a face
- breath control under rage
- sleeping on floors
- killing an identity
- commanding a demonic thought
- digesting betrayal cold
- eating alone
- staring at fire