Achraf Hakimi, the star defender for Morocco and Paris Saint-Germain, is heading to trial in France over a rape allegation. The decision was handed down just hours before Morocco kicked off their World Cup group stage match against Scotland, making an already tense tournament even heavier for the squad. Hakimi helped his team earn a draw against Brazil in their opener, but that result is now very much a secondary concern.
The case has been winding through the French legal system for some time. Hakimi initially appealed an earlier ruling that he should face trial, but a judge this week rejected that appeal and ordered the case to proceed. The plaintiff’s attorney, Rachel-Flore Pardo, told the Associated Press she felt relief that her client had been heard and will finally get her day in court. She added a broader message, voicing hope that this trial would help “weaken the fortress of denial and impunity surrounding sexual violence, including within the world of men’s football.”
Hakimi: ‘Justice Looked Me in the Eye’
Hakimi has been mostly quiet on the matter for years, but he broke that silence on X on Friday. He wrote that a judge essentially told him the case existed because of his fame. “If you were not famous, there would never have been a case,” he claimed the judge said. He went on to say he had stayed patient and trusted the system, and that he is now waiting “impatiently” for the trial so he can finally speak in his own defense.
His lawyer, Fanny Colin, released a statement pushing back hard on the decision. She argued that the investigation turned up plenty of exculpatory evidence, and that in any other case those findings would have led to the charges being dropped. Colin pointed to what she called contradictions and false statements from the accuser, as well as psychological assessments that noted “ambivalence and lack of clarity” about the events.
What This Means for the World Cup
There is no trial date set yet, and no official word on whether Hakimi will be allowed to keep playing for Morocco in the tournament. For now, he remains with the squad. But the timing makes this an uncomfortable reality for a Moroccan team that had been riding a wave of goodwill after their historic semifinal run in 2022. The federation has not commented on the legal situation.
Hakimi has insisted from the beginning that the accusation is false and that his fame alone is what brought the case this far. The trial will determine whether that argument holds up in court.
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