The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) has set lofty goals for women football in that country which include qualifying for the Olympics, World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations by 2024 after adopting an ambitious long term master plan to strengthen the national teams.
While Morocco are a powerhouse in the men’s game on the continent the same cannot be said for the women team which has failed to make it to the Women Afcon finals since 2000.
However, a historic meeting attended by all stakeholders chaired by FRMF Fouzi Lekjaa last week saw the signing of a contract of objectives for women’s football to enhance the practice at club level, create a competitive professional national championship and ultimately strengthen the ranks of national teams.
“Among the expected objectives are the regular qualification for the final phases of the African Cup of Nations finals for all categories, winning an African Cup in at least one youth category, qualifying for the World Cup in at least one youth category, and for the Senior World Cup 2023 and Olympic Games Paris 2024,” FRMF said in a statement following the momentous gathering.
“This roadmap also aims to place the women’s national team in the top 3 of the best African national teams and in the top 50 of the FIFA rankings,” they said.
The morocco ladies team is currently ranked 81st on the FIFA rankings while they are 8th best in Africa.
Reforms of the women’s football system that have been undertaken by the FRMF include the restructuring of women’s football competitions and the broadening of the base of female players, as well as its rehabilitation at the level of technical support or sound financial management to enable it to achieve the expected objectives.
The plan is also to make football the biggest sport practised by women in Morocco with a minimum of 89,802 licence holders by 2024.
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Training of at least 1,000 technical staff for women’s football and developing the level of competitions with strong championships at all levels of competition are also major priorities.
“The women’s championship shall comprise 14 teams in the first division, 30 in the second division divided into two groups of 15 in 2020/2021 and 28 teams divided into two groups of 14 in 2021/2022, in addition to a national championship for the U17s and league championships for the U15s.
“The clubs of the first and second divisions must have a senior team, a U17 team and another U15 team to participate in the competitions that concern them, in addition to the compulsory appointment of a woman as assistant coach, if the head coach is a man and the U15 staff must be entirely composed of women,” FRMF said.
The women football budget has increased significantly from one million euros last season to six million euros in the 2020/2021
