Morocco Split With Coach Vahid Halilhodzic Ahead Of World Cup

World Cup qualifiers Morocco have split with coach Vahid Halilhodzic three months ahead of the finals in Qatar, the country's football federation said Thursday. The fall-out appears to have come over Halilhodzic's handling of two of his star players. He sidelined Chelsea's Hakim Ziyech and Noussair Mazraoui of Bayern Munich for disciplinary reasons and while he qualified for the World Cup without them it seems the federation wanted them back.

"We came to an amiable agreement to part ways due to divergences on preparations for the World Cup," the Moroccan federation said.

Ziyech and Mazraoui were not part of the squad that reached the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon in January, and Halilhodzic omitted both from the World Cup qualifying play-off matches against the Democratic Republic of Congo in March.

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The World Cup starts November 20 in Qatar where Morocco take on Croatia, Belgium and Canada in Group F.

Halilhodzic had previously qualified for the World Cup finals with Ivory Coast and Japan.