Morocco participated for the very first time in the last phase of an international tournament in 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics. After qualifying under the direction of coach Mohamed Massoun, the Moroccans were placed in three teams following the expulsion from North Korea. Morocco were beaten in both matches against Hungary (6-0 which was the team's most devastating defeat ever) in addition to Yugoslavia (3-1 although they scored the first goal in the second half through Ali Bouachra).
In 1966 in 1966, Morocco's Moroccan Football Association joined the Confederation of African Football and could participate in competitions organised through the CAF.
In 1967's Mediterranean Games in Tunis, Tunisia was the host. Moroccans fell in the opening round, placing fourth within a squad made up of Italy, France, and Algeria.
When they were preparing to play in the 1968 Olympics, Morocco refused to take on Israel but were later substituted by Ghana.
Between 1968 and 1969 The team was involved in preparing for qualifying for the Mexican World Championship in 1970. The first game was a success and they defeated Senegal (1-0) in addition to Tunisia after a draw that was mandatory in the wake of three draws (of which the final one was in Marseille in a draw that was 2 - 3). In the last round of the preliminary round, which was played against Sudan as well as Nigeria, Morocco obtained five points which put them above Nigeria and becoming the first nation to qualify to play in the final round of an international championship. Then, Morocco lost the decisive play-off against Algeria in order to advance to the final round in the 70 Africa Cup of Nations.
Morocco was an early African national side to be selected for the world championship, following participation during an tournament of elimination (at 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy, Egypt was the first African national team to participate in the World Cup, but without having played in the qualifying tournament before). It was the Moroccan team, which was coached by Yugoslav Blagoje Vidinic, consisted solely of players in the Moroccan league, which included Driss Bamous, and Ahmed Faras.
The 3rd June of 1970, in a match against West Germany in front of 12,942 fans, Morocco surprisingly opened the scoring with a goal during the twenty-first game played by Houmane Jarir. In the second period, however West Germany scored. West Germans scored with Uwe Seeler and Gerd Muller, and prevailed by the score of 2-1. In the third quarter, however, The Lions of the Atlas then took on Peru in the presence of 13,537 fans. The Moroccans scored three goals in the span of ten minutes, and lost three goals to win 3-0. The 11th of June, 1970 the lost Moroccans played against Bulgaria 1-1. They scored a goal to come back in the sixty-sixth game by Maouhoub Ghazouani. This was the first win that the African national team during the World Cup.
At the time of 1972's Africa Cup of Nations qualification in 1972, the Lions of the Atlas ousted Algeria before facing Egypt and defeated Egypt 3-0 in the first leg , and then losing 3-2 when they returned and yet, they qualified to the very first time to participate in the final stage of the tournament in Europe. The group phase, in which they played three draws of 1-1 with Congo, Sudan and Zaire and were eliminated in the initial round. The three Moroccan goals featured the signature from Ahmed Faras.
Qualification for 1972 Olympics with two draws and two wins. Morocco began their campaign in Group A, playing an uncontested draw against the United States, then lost 3-1 against host West Germany and defeated Malaysia by 6-0 thanks to the help of an Ahmed Faras hat-trick, thereby progressing to the second round. In the end, due to losses against USSR (3-0), Denmark (3-1) and Poland (5-0) and Poland (5-0), they had to be eliminated of the competition which left them at the bottom of their group. As of now, this performance is still the most impressive performance by this group of Atlas Lions at the Olympic soccer tournament.
In 1974's world cup qualifying tournament, Morocco successfully passed three qualifying rounds prior to entering the final stage alongside Zambia as well as Zaire. Although they were beaten 4-0 away by Zambia and Zaire, the Moroccans came back in the second match, beating their opponent by 2-0 in their home. Then they returned back to Zaire in their 3rd match but were beaten 3-0. They conceded all three goals during the second half and with Faras being forced off the field because of injuries. Morocco made an appeal seeking for a replay. The appeal was denied by FIFA. To protest the decision, Morocco withdrew from the qualifying tournament, which caused them to miss their final game. Atlas Lions to miss their final home game against Zaire that had qualified for the finals which resulted in FIFA giving Zaire the win 2-0 in a walkover. The same reason was the reason why Morocco also decided to not participate during their 1974 African Cup of Nations qualification.
As of 1974 Morocco had only played two matches, both against Algeria with an 2-0 victory and a draw. Following 1974 Morocco began to play regularly in FIFA as well as CAF competitions. They were able to secure qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations by defeating Ghana in the final round, but were unable to get a spot in the 1976 Olympics after being they were eliminated by Nigeria.