Morocco’s Atlas Lions late last year became the most successful African country at the FIFA World Cup as the country made history of being the first in the continent to reach the semi-finals.

In the aftermath, they got the biggest prize money ever by an African team. Their prize money was $25 million.

It has been a worthy income for the investment that the country has made in football. Near the kingdom’s capital city, Rabat sat one of the mind-blowing football project sited at Sala Al-Jadida.

It called the Mohammed VI Football Complex. The project, a $6,114,925 (630 million in local currency -dirham) can be easily linked to the growing football success and influence of Morocco in the continent.

The complex is equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities, in line with FIFA standards, making it one of the most important in the world.

According to the director of the complex, Hassan Kharbouchi, it was inaugurated by the kingdom’s monarch,  His Majesty King Mohammed VI in December 2019.

This complex is a real concentrate of expertise and know-how, built on a 29.3 hectare site, it is intended to host national teams in training camps, as well as foreign national teams wishing to carry out their concentration camps in Morocco.

European club champions, Real Madrid, were due to camp there on Thursday 2 February on arrival for the FIFA Club World Cup going on in Morocco.

Kharbochi revealed that the opening of the sports complex to foreign teams will also enable it to become a lever for the development of national tourism and to promote the international influence of  Morocco.

Tucked inside the serene Sala Al-Jadida, the complex houses residences for the Atlas Lions when the fourth -placed side at the 2022 World Cup are camped.

The complex has saved a lot of foreign money that would have been spent in camping the players abroad.

At the disposal of the senior national team at the complex are 66 rooms and four suites.

Other tiers of the Morocco national teams are also taken care of at the complex.  For  the national U-23 teams are three accommodation blocks with a capacity of 150 beds.

The U17 team has 45 rooms with a capacity of 80 beds. There is another accommodation building that have 54 rooms with a total capacity of 98 beds.

The Mohammed VI complex has four natural grass football pitches, three synthetic grass football pitches, one indoor football pitch, one hybrid football pitch, as well as a reathletisation in-door arena capable of hosting futsal matches.

There is hardly any conceivable project not incorporated in the mind blowing complex as it also have an outdoor Olympic swimming pool, two tennis courts and a beach soccer pitch.

Perhaps the heart of the complex is the medical centre. It is composed of a clinic, a fitness zone and a physiotherapist office.

Also incorporated at the medical centre is a balneotherapy pool. This enable players to bath in minerals and other additives as a therapeutic modality. 

A tour of the medical centre saw one entering the ground floor where immediately after the front desk is the exploration zone where the players are supposed to be examined.

The first point at the area is the Cardiology where the heart beats and other related parts of the body are examined. Next is the Emergency area where evaluation and possibly evacuation to hospital are done where necessary.

After that is the massive fitness planning room. On the left hand side is an area meant for goalkeepers where the equipment are supposed to assist in sharpening the reflexes of the goalkeepers.

On the right hand side is the area for the outfield players. Also on the ground floor is the Rehabilitation Pool. It composes of an indoor pool that is encased with glass at one end enabling evaluators to have a clear underwater view by evaluators.

Where anything is noticed, there is a pharmacy department  as well as sauna and jacuzzi. Also at the ground floor is ice bath room which Kharbochi said is one of the three existing in sports complexes world wide.

The other two are  at Chelsea FC and Bayern Munich in Germany. He explained that the ice bath rooms speed up the recovery rate for players especially  in tournament period when they had to play competitive matches within few days.

“While the ordinary ice block is 5°C, the cryoair ice bath room offers -110°C. Thus, the player or patient will only ener for a duration of three minutes.

Some national team players were seen sitting at the waiting room for medical consultants to attend to them.

The medical centre have nutritionists, psychologists and personnel for traumatology.