Moroccan Football has been living over the sky this last year. After the U17 women’s team made their first ever World Cup appearance, the men’s national team’s journey at the 2022 Qatar World Cup is one football fans won’t forget anytime soon.
So far, so good. We’d think that this is how far the story goes… but then, we remember that the women’s team is also making history. In July 2022, Morocco, the hosts of the fourteenth edition of the African Cup of Nations (CAN), defied all expectations as they finished runners-up to South Africa, the only side to beat them, 2-1 in the final. Their reward was their debut qualification for the FIFA Women’s World Cup™. Again, a first-timer for the Arab World.
In this article, we dig into the history of women’s football in Morocco to better understand how this achievement was made possible.
How did it all start?
Football has always been considered a men’s sport, women weren’t welcomed, encouraged or even allowed to play, the federation prioritized the men’s teams and neglected their female counterparts. Media did not equally cover the events, investors weren’t keen on “wasting their money” in the women’s game, and fans, too, looked at women’s football as a “less entertaining” and “unacceptable” sport. For a girl to play football, she would have to accept the stereotypes that come with it.
As per the available -yet limited- resources and archives, the Moroccan women’s national team’s first official participation dates back to the fifth of July 1998 as they drew against South Africa. There are no traces that indicate that girls and women played football before the late 1990s. As years have passed, and due to the lack of investment, the women’s game struggled to develop.
New Era for the Women’s Team:
Morocco’s qualification to the 2023 Women’s World Cup wasn’t just a fairytale sporting moment. It was the result of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation’s (FRMF) deliberate efforts to turn Morocco into a dominant footballing force.
The report of the Moroccan Central Commission for women’s football and futsal: Conscious of the role played by football in closing the gender gap and emancipating women in the country, the officials of football have decided to give the women’s game the recognition it deserves. A women’s football national center was created to, first, scout, then develop young talented footballers (aged under 18) and who will form the national team in the future.
The Marshall Plan: the road into professionalism
In August 2020, the FRMF implemented the “Marshall Plan”, a four-year plan to invest in and develop women’s football with a clear objective: increase the number of registered female footballers by five by the end of 2024. The appointments of Kelly Lindsey, the former USWNT defender, in 2020 as the Women’s football director and Head coach, and Reynald Pedros, the Women’s Champions League winner with Olympique Lyonnais, in 2021, as the replacement of Lindsey as the Women’s National team head coach only confirm the FRMF’s ambitions. Its President, Fouzi Lekjaa, understood that the promotion of women’s football is key to the development of the whole football structure.
The plan’s vision was divided into three main parts: funding, infrastructure and competitions. For example, each women’s club will be entitled to funding of up to $130,000 for the top-flight league clubs and $86,000 for the second division to remunerate players and technical staff on a monthly basis. With this new move, Morocco became the only country in the world to have two tiers of professional women’s football, including access to world-class complexes.
A sociological analysis : A migration success story
Since Morocco’s independence from France in 1956, the country has evolved into one of the prime source countries of labor migrants to Europe. France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain are often the go-to destinations for the Moroccan people. Migration is considered as an important socio-economic process and has thus intrinsically influenced the country’s development and the livelihoods of the migrants and their families. What migration also influenced is football. Many players who were foreign born, finally opted to play for their parent’s home country, Morocco. Having Moroccan parents, the world-class player, Achraf Hakimi, born and raised in Spain, decided to represent the Lions instead of La Roja.
The women’s team has recently also benefited from the binational players. From Rosella Ayane (England), passing by Salma Amani and Anissa Lahmari (France), to Elodie Nakkach (Switzerland) and Yasmin Mrabet (Spain)...
Thinking points
Having overcome great obstacles, the women’s game in Morocco can look to the future with a good deal of optimism. As we look back at the game’s history, here’s what comes to mind:
• Having come this far, what’s next for Moroccan football?
• How is the legacy of this historical participation going to be measured?
• What’s in it for the neighboring countries? Will Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria copy Morocco’s development work?
