By Paul Nicholson
April 14 – The Moroccan Royal Football Federation (FRMF) has a new president. Skhirate-Fouzi Lakjaa (pictured second left), the only candidate standing, was elected on Sunday for a four-year term.
The elections were the second time that Morocco has voted for a new president in the past six months – the first elections in November last year were ordered to be re-run by FIFA after the federation failed to adopt the correct FIFA statutes before organising the election.
There was concern at the time of political interference in Moroccan football and a FIFA statement reminded the federation of articles 13, par. 1 i and 17, par. 1 of the FIFA Statutes that “each Member shall manage its affairs independently and with no influence from third parties”.
Ultimately the outcome was the same but without the bad-tempered scenes that occurred at the first election amid allegations of wrong-doing. Lekjaa, is the vice-president of RS Berkane’s (Renaissance Sportive), a Moroccan first division club where players had complained about non-payment and late payment of wages. There had also been unproved allegations of bribery around his club’s rise to the top league.
Lekjaa comes from a government background and was Director of Budget at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. His presidential platform was based on securing investment of at least 600 million dirhams ($72,000) in football, in order to achieve “true professionalism”.
Morocco was the first African nation to host the FIFA Club World Cup last December and will host the Championship again this year. The country will also host the Africa Cup of Nations in January 2015.
Lekjaa takes over from Ali Fassi Fihri, who had remained in charge following the directive by FIFA to re-run the election.
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