SPECIAL REPORT: Monsieur Fouzi Lekjaa: Rising Profile of CAF’s Preisident In-Waiting

By Harry Awurumibe, Renowned Football Analyst,  Abuja, Nigeria

The heights of great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.

This time-tested quote by a famous American poet and educator, *Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,”* bears a clear testament to the rising profile of a Moroccan football administrator- extraordinaire, Monsieur Fouzi Lekjaa, President of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) who has within a space of a decade risen from a mere administrator (President) of a local club-side based in his native Berkane, Renaissance Sportive de Berkane (RS Berkane), to climb to the pinnacle of continental and world football administration.

This is even as Lekjaa has combined state craft,  diplomacy, and politics, as well as football administration so well that he has become a

recurring decimal in both local and international football politics as, aside from holding the post of the President of FRMF, he has risen to become a CAF Executive Committee Member; Member,  Executive Council of Arab Football Associations Union and FIFA Council Member since 2021and was recently reelected for another four-year term.

Truly, like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, the heights Lekjaa has reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but while his companions, in this case, fellow Presidents of Member Associations (MAs in CAF) slept, was  toiling upward in the night to reposition the Moroccan football to achieve great success on and off the football pitch.

RISE TO FOOTBALL PROMINENCE

Before 2009, Fouzi Lekjaa’s name did not ring a bell as he was not a football household name in his home country, Morocco, Africa, and globally, but all that changed after he was appointed as the President of RS Berkane in 2009, while he held another job as a civil servant, having studied Agricultural Engineering at Agronomic and veterinary Institute Hassan II and later Administration at Ecole d’Administration de Rabat specializing on  Sports Management.

Having grown up a supporter of this local club, it was very easy for him to show his deep knowledge of football administration by turning the fortunes of the club around within the shortest possible period he was at the helm of affairs.

It took only three years before his good work can show as in 2012, RS Berkane rejoined the Moroccan top-flight league for the first time since the 1980s, and reached the Throne Cup’s final in 2014, for the first time since 1986.

Since then, the club has been crowned champions of the Throne Cup two times, in 2018 and 2022, while RS Berkane on Sunday, March 16, 2025, clinched the historic first Moroccan top division league title with five matches to end of the Moroccan league.

The club has also achieved unprecedented continental success, reaching the final of the CAF Confederation Cup three times, winning the title in 2020 and 2022. They also won the CAF Super Cup in 2022 after defeating their fellow Moroccans, Wydad Casablanca. Wydad AC won the continent’s Champions League while RS Berkane took home the Confederations Cup, respectively.

Perhaps the Moroccan football fraternity saw the massive work he was doing with RS Berkane that in 2014, Lekjaa was unanimously elected to succeed Ali Fassi Fihri as President of the FRMF, the position he continues to hold till today.

HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AT A GLANCE

Under Fouzi Lekjaa’s watch, Moroccan football has improved astronomically  both on the pitch and in the boardroom as Moroccan clubs have achieved great successes on the continental stage, winning three CAF Super Cup titles, two Champions’ League titles, and reaching five CAF finals within a space of 10 years while many of his contemporaries in Africa have not been able to see their country’s national teams or clubs win any continental titles.

Aside from the clubs success, Morocco’s men national football team, Atlas Lions, and their women’s team Atlas Lionesses have also seen made unprecedented progress on the pitch as they have also been qualifying for CAF and FIFA Tournaments.

Since Lekjaa assumed office as FRMF President in 2014, Morocco has qualified for the back to back 2018 Russia World Cup and 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar where the country shook the world by playing in Africa’s first semi-final match and also playing in the losers’ play-off to crown a beautiful outing in the tournament.

Under Lekjaa’s presidency,  following trouble with players and disapproval from Morocco’s football fans, Bosnia-born manager Vahid Halilodzic was dismissed by FRMF only a few months before Morocco was set to participate in the 2022 World Cup finals and in his place he appointed local Moroccan coach Walid Regragui, who went on to lead Morocco’s squad through a historic run that saw them reach the World Cup’s semi-finals.

The decision to hire Regragui has been hailed by many as a step in the right direction of putting more trust in local talents, all thanks to the foresight of Lekjaa, whose policies have brought huge success to Moroccan football not seen in most of the football federations across Africa.

Many of the stars that led Morocco to the semi-finals in 2022 should still play for the country in next year’s World Cup when the United States of America (USA), Canada, and Mexico, leading to hopes that they can maintain the same level or improve upon it in the future.

In fact, Moroccan team’s performances at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar have only strengthened Morocco’s international reputation as a footballing nation with a history and passion for the sport, which should also serve well to strengthen its success bid to host several CAF and FIFA top competitions in the recent time.

Indeed, Morocco’s 2022 World Cup triumphs have been declared as just the beginning by some, and it certainly seems that Lekjaa is looking to the future as well.

FOUZI LEKJAA’S SHINNING LEGACIES

Fouzi Lekjaa’s administrative acumen, especially in football  management, needs to be studied by nearly 53 CAF MA Presidents who are still struggling to manage their country’s football with heavy dependent on federal governments the huge funds required to run football in their respective nations.

Why Lekjaa is different from his peers in Africa is not far-fetched as he has a clear understanding of the terrain and how to navigate it to achieve on and off the pitch successes unlike most of the African football administrators who got into the top position of the head of their country’s football federations for the sole purpose of personal aggrandizement.

For example, while most of the President of MAs in Africa elected into office the same year with Lekjaa failed to leave any legacy after their tenures, his administration built the best Technical Centre in Africa (Nigeria’s version of FIFA Goals Project) and Sports Clinic, equivalent to Federal Medical Centre in Nigeria, where sports men and women go to patronise.

He administration, within 10 years, also built one of the best Football Association Secretariats in the world, pays salaries of all female football club players and coaches in Morocco, and transformed the infrastructure of football in Morocco for the better just as Lekjaa, who, like the CAF President Motsepe, owns a football club, is a known promoter of football tourism in Morocco

Under his leadership, he quickly established a structure within the federation by developing 16 clubs in Moroccan Division 1 and 16 clubs in Division 2 while the amateur class has a hundred clubs organized in regional league. At the level of each league, there are an average of 120 clubs.

The FRMF President obliges each club, of all levels, to have at least three classes of young people: the U-17s, the U-20s, and the hopes. It modernizes and professionalizes infrastructure developments across the country. Lekjaa is also building political will with King Mohammed VI, where the two men invest together in football projects.

For example, in a record time of five years, both men managed to launch the construction of the Mohammed VI complex in Salé. The complex is spread over 30 hectares and houses a capacity of 480 young footballers. It has nine training rooms, a covered room, a medical clinic that covers 400 square meters. This project, which cost $65,000,000, was inaugurated in 2019.

For his unprecedented achievements, Lekjaa was on June 25, 2022, reelected President of FRMF, during the Elective General Assembly of the federation, held at the Mohammed VI complex in Maamora. Lekjaa, who submitted his candidacy for the position on June 4, was the only candidate, running for his third term in the same position.

FOUZI LEKJAA: CAF PRESIDENT IN-WAITING

With his team’s sustained quest for titles in the continent and world football, added to the recent colossal investments in the national football league and in sporting infrastructure such as world-class stadiums and a well-respected football academy, Lekjaa’s leadership has made Moroccan football a leader in Africa and a force to reckon with on the world stage.

Armed with the above credentials and level of achievements recorded by Moroccan football under his leadership, it will be inconceivable for anyone to oust him out of the position of the President of FRMF and also to deny him a place in the Executive Committee of CAF and FIFA  Council.

Again,  last week in Cairo, Egypt during the 14th Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) of CAF, Lekjaa was elected by a landslide (49 votes out of 52 countries that voted), to lead the representatives of  CAF within the FIFA Council  joining CAF President (Motsepe) who secured automatic ticket to the Council.

The Moroccan was well ahead of Egypt’s Hani Abou Rida; Niger Republic’s Djibrilla Hima Hamidou;  Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya, and Djiboutian Souleiman Waberi while Mrs. Kanizat Ibrahim won the seat reserved for female candidate to complete CAF’s FIFA Council Members with Nigeria’s Amaju Melvine Pinnick unable to secure enough votes to be reelected for the post he has occupied for four years.

The fact that 52 countries out of 54 in CAF voted for Lekjaa speaks volume of his influence in African and world football even as Morocco has become “a Mecca of Football Tourism” with the country awarded a Five-Year Hosting Rights for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup finals from this year and 2030 FIFA World Cup finals with Spain and Portugal.

Under Lekjaa’s watch, Morocco has been hosting CAF important events like the CAF Best Awards; 2025 CAF African Cup of Nations (AFCON); CAF Champions League; CAF Confederation Cup; 2025 CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON); 2026 WAFCON; CAF Women’s Champions League and hosting FIFA World Cup African qualifiers and AFCON qualifiers for countries banished from playing in their home stadiums by CAF.

Indeed, Morocco’s place in African football has been bolstered by the administrative acumen of Lekjaa whose regime has witnessed an unprecedented progress on and off the pitch by the country’s national teams and the successful bidding by Morocco to host continental and world football tournaments without much struggle.

Despite its World Cup bids being rejected before, Morocco successfully bid again to host the 2030 World Cup and this time the African country won, and with Lekjaa retaining his FIFA’s  Council Membership,  Morocco will be the second African and Arab country to host the global football showpiece after South Africa and Qatar respectively.

To cement his place in African football administration,  Lekjaa’s childhood club, RS Berkane, where he cut his managerial teeth on Sunday won the Moroccan top-flight league with five matches to spare. As expected, FRMF, under his leadership, has congratulated RS Berkane for their historic achievement.

In an official statement, FRMF President, Fouzi Lekjaa praised the club, saying: “On behalf of the Executive Board, I extend my congratulations to Renaissance Sportive de Berkane for winning the Professional League title for the first time in their history.” The statement further highlighted Berkane’s outstanding season, acknowledging their dominance in the league standings and their significant 15-point lead at the top of the table.

“It’s an honour to achieve one of my goals with Nahdat Berkane. Today, we will celebrate the title, and then we will turn the page and continue working match after match,” he added.

In deed,  nobody can begrudge Lekjaa for the results of his efforts speak for themselves even as he looks like a man “with Midas Touch” hence this writer can comfortably say that anytime the incumbent CAF President ( Patrice Motsepe) decides to stand down from the post, Monsieur Fouzi Lekjaa is perfect fit for the CAF top job because of his antecedents of being one of the Africa’s top football administrators with proven track records of successfully managing a club side and Moroccan federation including the national teams better than he met them.

Long Live Africa!