L'Equipe Television Series - Morocco

The Team is designed for young people, who form the majority of the population in Morocco. The median age of Moroccans is 25 years old, with 57% of the population below the age of 29, and 28% falling into the 15-to-29 age group. The series follows two young men and their families: Mehdi, who comes from a wealthy family, and Samir, whose family is struggling to survive as his father's health deteriorates. Throughout the series, Samir and Mehdi struggle to overcome their differences and, ultimately, build trust. Their friendship is put to the test when Mehdi falls in love with Samir's sister, Soukaina, a beautiful young medical student.

The series is supported by a national outreach campaign led by 50 dialogue facilitators trained by SFCG who host community sessions to discuss the issues tackled in the series. The community outreach campaign works primarily with youth in economically poor communities, focusing on empowering them to become more actively engaged citizens. These youth often feel marginalised, excluded, and powerless. The Team's outreach campaign is engaging them in positive, constructive dialogue, giving them more opportunity to voice their opinions and be heard. A consistent theme throughout the series is that young people must have the opportunity to actively participate in society if there is to be positive social change in Morocco, and in their own lives.

The Team in Morocco has launched a website - a social networking space that incorporates an interactive blog, photos, videos, and other links - and an extensive campaign to diffuse the show's messages through the local press.

With technical support and content oversight from Common Ground Productions, the series was written and produced by Ali N Productions, owned by Nabil Ayouch, an internationally award-winning film producer and director from Morocco. The Team in Morocco has created a theme song – "Koora" by Mazagan – and music video. According to the organisers, Mazagan is known for revolutionising Moroccan popular music – reggae, raga, chaâbi, rock, alaoui, jazz, funk, zook – by creating "chaâbi-groove", which mixes rural singing with urban sound. The group consists of 8 musicians, including lead singer Issam Kamal, a former economist, on vocals, guitar, mandolin, and composition. Click here to view the music video on Youtube.

Twenty-six episodes of season One of L'Equipe were broadcast twice weekly on SNRT, a national television channel. The show is televised in Darija, the Arabic dialect of the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Lybia). The organisers estimate that a large majority of the 30 million people of Morocco will watch the series. Click here to view episode summaries of the first series.

Click here to watch a trailer of The Team on YouTube.

Youth, Reconciliation, Citizenship

The estimated viewership of The Team (Morocco) is at 22 to 23% of the population of 30 million. This is especially significant given that only 40% of Moroccans watch Moroccan – as opposed to satellite – television.

The Team in Morocco is one of a number of versions of the series produced in different countries for Common Ground Productions. According to SFCG, the production has merged the global appeal of football with soap opera to help transform social attitudes and diminish violent behaviour in countries grappling with deeply rooted conflict. The television series addresses the very real divisive issues facing societies in a dozen African, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries - using sport as a unifier to surmount barriers. Each production of The Team follows the characters on a football team who must overcome their differences – be they cultural, ethnic, religious, tribal, racial, or socio-economic – in order to work together to win the game. All of the series are created and produced locally. Actors and scriptwriters, who have experienced violent conflict and divisions firsthand, are drawn from local populations. Local production companies and technicians take the lead, with additional technical assistance and support from Common Ground Productions. In Africa, the series is being produced in Kenya, Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Burundi, and Guinea.