Morocco minister axed over flooded pitch

Rabat - Morocco's king has sacked the country's sports minister after heavy rain flooded a soccer stadium and disrupted a Club World Cup quarter final, state media reported on Wednesday.

Players complained the waterlogged pitch in Rabat was dangerous and demanded an explanation from soccer's governing body FIFA after the December game between Australia's Western Sydney Wanderers and Mexico's Cruz Azul.

The conditions at the Prince Moulay Abdellah stadium triggered an outcry in the sports-mad country's newspapers and social media and subsequent matches had to be moved to Marrakech.

Youth and Sports Minister Mohamed Ouzzine said he was ready to go after an investigation blamed the ministry and the company that prepared the venue and found there had been a failure in the pitch's drainage systems, said the MAP agency.

"When the minister saw the results of the investigation, he asked the prime minister to submit to his majesty his willingness to be dismissed from his post," MAP added.

It was unclear what impact the departure would have on the make-up of Morocco's Islamist-led coalition. Ouzzine's Popular Movement Party has five other ministers.