Football: Lekjaa’s ultimatum | L’Economiste
Will the football clubs of the First Division (Botola 1) and Second Division (Botola 2) which have not transformed themselves into a public sports limited company be deprived of a championship this year? In any case, Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), who brandished this threat on July 22, 2019 in Skhirat, has just taken action.
At least, this is what emerges from the letter Lekjaa has just sent to all the club presidents. Fouzi Lekjaa summons them to perform before August 31 the actions decided by the Federation’s steering committee and during discussions with the National Professional Football League (LNFP). Thus, the clubs, which are all supposed to have transformed themselves into public limited companies a few years ago, are required to have both their new articles of incorporation and the agreement binding the association to the public limited company be approved by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
As a reminder, the clubs in question had received a grant of 2.5 million Dirhams (MAD, about 250,000 USD) to benefit from the support of an accounting firm and switch from the status of simple sports association to that of a limited company as provided for by Law No. 30-09 on physical education and sports. But apparently not all formalities have been completed by all clubs. Concerning this point, the Federation will have to take action against the persons responsible for these breaches, which include for some clubs the fact of not having registered the new public limited company in the Trade Register. Clubs that have not yet completed this formality are required to do so urgently during the week separating them from the president’s ultimatum. The president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation also enjoins football clubs to transfer to the public limited company all the sports contracts binding them to the associations. In the same vein, new recruits will have to sign their sports contract exclusively with a public limited company and no longer with an association. Contracts that are not accompanied by all the deeds required by the Federation will be rejected by the Players’ Status Commission. The letter sent by the president of the Football Federation to the presidents of clubs gives a total of four weeks to latecomers to comply, which means that they are called upon to accomplish in a few weeks what they have not performed for two years.
The goal of this ultimatum is to push the former football associations to transform themselves into public limited companies approved at a general meeting, having a legal structure with a board of directors, publishing their annual balance sheet on a regular basis, and holding accounts certified by audit firms, among other formalities, and become entities ready to open up their capital to investors in order to meet international standards. The other component of the strategy advocated by the President of the Federation involves training, a component that remains marked by nepotism, by the very admission of the boss of national football.
Hassan EL ARIF
