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Snapshots are on the ground reports from our editorial department, field notes offering context, perspective, and a sharp lens on the cultures shaping the game.
Editorials
Members
Commissions
Think Tank
Image Licensing
About
Snapshots are on the ground reports from our editorial department, field notes offering context, perspective, and a sharp lens on the cultures shaping the game.
September 22, 2025
Words by Fay Harvey
Photography by Matthew David Stith
Photography by Matthew David Stith
Date: July 4-July 29, 2025
Medium: Digital Video and Photography
Video Direction: Matthew David Stith
Director of Photography: Matthew David Stith
Editorial Director: Fay Harvey
Producer: Nicole Moutis
Copywriter: Fay Harvey
On-the-Ground Production: Matthew David Stith, Fay Harvey, Lamiaa Tajani Jinane Ennasri
Interpeter: Lamiaa Tajani
Video Editors: Fay Harvey, Matthew David Stith
Sound: Matthew David Stith, Fay Harvey
Color: Matthew David Stith
Translation: Jinane Ennasri
Photography: Jinane Ennasri , Andrea Vílchez, Matthew David Stith, Susana Ferriera
Additional Video Footage: Andrea Vílchez
Slideshow Music: Countryside - Blood Orange, Eva Tolkin, Liam Benzvi, Ian Isiah
Special Thanks: Nike, Margot Purgues, Lamia Tajani, Ili Hyseni di Brissac, Marvin Heilbronn , Oussama Haddadi, Harlem Lamine, Marwan Benaddou Idrissi, Ofoto Fine Art Lab, Noor
Press
Nike: This Year’s WAFCON Shows How Football Can Change a Nation
Dazed: Voices of Medina: Football Case Study latest WAFCON project explores sport as a celebration of culture and unity
Nike And Football Case Study Spotlight Morocco Through The Lens Of Women’s Football
Dazed Middle East
SoccerBible
Hypebae
Voices of the Medina is a project powered by Nike.
However, given the reality that none of us except one had been to Morocco before, we knew that our additional on-the-ground documentation could not be as pre-planned as a project typically is; we knew these ideas would entail us throwing ourselves into this new place with new people to truthfully document as we went.
Thus, Voices of the Medina—Football Case Study’s multimedia exploration of Morocco’s love of football during WAFCON—was born, launching the platform’s pursuit of in-depth multimedia coverage.
“As an artist, I’m always looking for ways to express how I feel, and for this format, nothing was stronger than a video,” said Matthew David Stith, Football Case Study founder and member who led production, direction and post production on the project. “Whilst street and documentary photography is my preferred form of self expression, video felt just right.”
While shooting, Matt quickly realized how capturing videos forced him to slow down and get even more in touch with special locations. While taking pictures allows him to act as a fly on the wall, creating Voices of the Medina encouraged Matt to approach the community and hear the stories that keep the country alive.
“When I first arrived in Morocco, I thought the scenes would create themselves, but we had to settle in, and learn their way of life, and understand the best way to communicate with them. It’s always a challenge to sit and communicate with someone who doesn’t speak your language but football united us, and once we settled in, the undertaking of this project felt effortless,” he said.
Everyday, as the sun began to sink towards the Moroccan horizon, golden light would bathe Casablanca: buildings were illuminated, city goers faces were glowing in the light, baskets in the Medinas filled with olives, melons, and cashews glistened. This backdrop of the warm, luminescent city acted as the backbone for Voices of the Medina. While the heat was beating down on the city, we witnessed footballers running in slides and shorts, women and men consuming hot tea to stay cool, and families venturing off to the beach to find relief from the heat while voluntarily breaking a sweat in a game of rondos on the shore.
Immersing ourselves in these environments felt like walking into an intimate portrait embedded with deep history on its canvas. Football lovers described to us their parents’ parent’s love for football and how their upbringing with the sport molds their purpose in raising their children. A young woman deemed the beach her everyday sanctuary. To be visitors in these sacred, alive environments taught us something new every single day and truly stood as our foundation for the ways we approached people on the streets—no matter how intimidating the task of approaching strangers can be.
Using a Leica Q2, a portable tripod and a clip-on mic, we took to the community to document our days and conversations surrounding the beautiful game, ready at any point to jump into an impromptu interview when we found people willing to share their memories of personal devotion to the game against the scenes of the region: bustling streets, saturated sunsets and late-night shoppers.
We followed our intuition by stopping a multitude of strangers on the street while out every night: rug sellers, artists, butchers, orange juicers, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, siblings, friends, neighbors, and more. While plenty opted out of a video or photo opportunity, many were excited to get in front of the camera and express their love for the sport that connects them to their past and present community.
London-based Photographer Susana Ferreira flew in and joined the team for a week during the WAFCON coverage; her presence immediately impacting the group as she excitedly ventured off into the Medinas beside us as she captured intimate portraits of Morocco’s people and held deep conversations about everything from ways of life to the sport that has the heart of the nation.
From photographing to simply watching the Moroccan streets, Susana says that contributing to Voices of the Medina was a standout, rewarding life experience. A massive football lover herself, working on the project put Susana right in her element in a familiar manner.
“The people of Casablanca live and breathe football, and their warmth and passion reminded me so much of my motherland, Brasil. It felt like home.” Susana told me over text recently. “Despite not speaking Darija or French, I made so many lovely connections with people and throughout this project … I think we were able to honor those beautiful connections and share stories that deserve to travel far beyond the stadiums.”
And when FCS Member Andrea Vílchez wasn’t attending a WAFCON match in Morocco during the three weeks, she was equally as eager to get into these same streets throughout the creation of Voices of the Medina.
Ducking in and out of unique alleyways and souks, bobbing under clotheslines and navigating the concrete, Andrea walked in the directions of laughter and the dribbling of balls where she realized the part of her journey she cherished most: speaking with all types of people to hear their stories and opinions, even ones not pertaining to football. “It was very important to hear people’s thoughts firsthand because there are things we wouldn’t have known otherwise,” Andrea recounted of her experience working on Voices of the Medina where she gathered portraits and assisted with video. “Connecting with strangers and listening to what they have to say builds empathy and expands your understanding of the world…”
And it’s true. Every conversation we had clued us into a living, breathing football culture that has ties to society, religion, community, history and more.
But if it wasn’t for our counterparts that spoke Darija — Taza, Morocco-born FCS Member Jinane Ennasri and Casablanca-based Lamia Taj — our project wouldn’t have been impossible. While many people we spoke with could make a response work in English, giving freedom of the mother tongue to our subjects unlocked another level of honesty, truth and candidness that a language barrier at times obstructs.
Jinane visits Morocco yearly while living between New York and Doha, Qatar— but this moment of getting hands-on with her homeland through translating, guiding, photographing, conversing during the making of the project made her time in Morocco extra impactful. Hearing her community served as a reminder for why telling these stories of history and football matters, she explained to me.
In particular, women’s involvement and interest in the Moroccan football community and beyond was a pleasant surprise for her. The women we spoke with, as depicted in the documentary, showed huge interest in clubs, players, matches, and their confidence to say their feelings about the sport on camera to a global audience inspired Jinane.
“Too often people assume women from places like Morocco don’t know much or have strong opinions about sports but that’s not true at all. Their voices are just as important as mine, no matter their experience or where they live,” she said.
As we set out for our nights of shooting, Lamia and Jinane assured that our questions, ideas and responses were translated between us and our subject. Not only did they take us to crucial locations and provide cultural insights throughout our creative process, they thoughtfully ensured that our goals and messages did not get lost in translation. As our team stood behind the camera and the football lover sat in front, Lamia and Jinane were at the permitter with the assist.
Though Lamia was born and raised in Casablanca, the North African country’s largest city where the majority of this project took place, she found herself understanding her hometown in a new light while working on Voices of the Medina. “We get so caught up in everyday life that we forget how special our everyday surroundings are,” Lamia said, reminiscing on her days guiding us through the expansive city. Translating these conversations that showcased the diversity, deep-rooted traditions and kindness of her fellow Moroccans gave Lamia a newfound sense of pride about her home.
“This was more than just a project, it was like discovering Morocco from a whole different perspective … it made me appreciate not only the beauty of my country, it also reminded me how lucky I am to be a part of this kind, warm, strong community full of passion,” Lamia added.
While at Arabica one day, at a coffee shop we frequented in Casablanca, between a moment of work, Matthew and I ran into Oussama Haddadi, a Moroccan-American photographer who recently relocated back to Morocco from Miami, Florida in the United States. Like all of our encounters during the trip, running into Oussama was a lucky meeting of chance where we were let into the deep footballing culture in Morocco.
As we congregated into the beige-and-white coffee shop over our sugary iced coffees, Oussama told us about the electric energy at events such as Casablanca derbies between clubs Wydad AC and Raja CA. He lifted up his phone, showing us a video he took of the Wydad crowd where a swarm made up of thousands of red and white bodies moved as one, with one head Ultra on an elevated surface leading them like a conductor directs an orchestra. The video alone was enthralling, and Oussama’s feelings of football in his home country were just as captivating.
Oussama graciously took the time out of his schedule to join us for a day of exploring where he shared his own thoughts on camera, serving as our opening shot and concluding speaker in Voices of the Medina. He stands in a green and red T90 Nike shirt while the Medina erupts behind him with voices of vendors, roaring motorbikes and footsteps of hundreds.
“As a Moroccan-born, American-raised individual, I have had this fondness for the sport that felt so natural,” Oussama says while thinking back to his experience working on the project. In the documentary, Oussama depicts the Moroccan love for football equating to national pride and community support where cafes, streets and stadiums are filled to support the country’s sporting endeavor, a feeling Oussama sees barely burgeoning in the west as America is slowly embracing football.
“I realized [my] natural love for the sport came from my roots when I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the country I was born in, but haven’t been able to experience,” he says. “[Voices of the Medina] highlighted to me what football meant to us as not only a source of entertainment but a lifestyle.”
While our time in Morocco concluded in late July, Matthew and I spent the following weeks sifting through the footage we gathered to compose the final project for our audience. Mourning the beautiful experience that was living in Morocco for a month and revolving our life around football, opening the many jpegs, video files, written notes, physical memorabilia and audio capturings from our assignment abroad felt like digitally revisiting the regions all over again.
From days of editing on Premier Pro, to rewriting captions in Darija and French alongside Jinane, to designing a website that memorializes our conversations and documentation, every aspect of this project from shooting to post-production was purposeful. Watching the final project come to fruition and placing the delicate details together—cinematic synthesizers and drums from the songs of English Singer and Producer Blood Orange, a unique color grade, stylish film grain, purposeful audio blending—was like sewing an intricate quilt constructed of fabrics collected over a special period of time. Each clip within this project highlights unique points of views and personal history over honest, rich scenery that is there for a purpose, each piece being a vital part of its whole.
From Football Case Study, we extend an immense amount of gratitude to all in Morocco that touched this project. Strangers we met turned into friends as they embraced their vulnerabilities and told us their honest view of football in Morocco, and we thank all the voices that trusted us to tell their stories.
To our traveling and home team, thank you for coming along on the ride that was producing this project. Holding tripods in 35°C heat, coming up with questions on the spot when conversations went in a spontaneous direction, late night hours of sifting through photos of the day, translating words into our native languages, consulting from abroad: this project could not have been complete without you.
Thank you to Nike Football and Margot for believing in this project and getting us to Morocco. Your excitement and dedication to making coverage for Women’s football in Africa happen made our hearts sing.
And to those at home, thank you for taking the time to watch this documentary and read about our experience in the wonderful place that is Morocco, we cannot wait to highlight more voices in the near future.