As in every off-season, football fans in Morocco put pressure on club leaders. The goal is to improve the quality of their favorite team’s squad via the transfer market. However, these recruitments are often not judicious, do not respond to a sporting or economic logic and often contribute to increasing the clubs’ deficit.
In football, there are two parallel worlds when it comes to transfer markets. First, there is the one that respects recruitment standards according to the needs, financial means, technical or physical qualities of the player and, finally, the financial added value that this recruit could bring on the commercial, marketing or merchandising level. All in all, it is the normal transfer market that respects a certain orthodoxy. And then, there is the Moroccan specificity or exception, the famous Moroccoto, a term dear to our elder Belaid Bouimid.
Moroccoto is a way of operating that responds to a very particular situation. We could paraphrase or take inspiration from a phrase by Coluche. It is “the story of a guy” who decides to become president, and who during his campaign promises the moon to members or supporters. Mr. X has the magic wand and with him all the sporting and financial worries of the club will be forgotten. And the formula that must satisfy the vox populi is to recruit players without sporting and financial logic. A particular transfer window that takes place in the absence of any structure dedicated to this type of transaction. Without a readable organization chart, without the opinion of any financial commission, and without the approval of a sporting director, a position that is conspicuous by its absence in 80% of our clubs.
This buying fever must calm the ardor of the supporters, anesthetize the desires of the members, and push the competition to bid even higher on the transfer market. The rest of the operation takes place in pain. The player in most cases does not give satisfaction or has not received his due, because we must not forget that he initialed a contract with a huge signing bonus that does not respond to any economic logic. As a result, he files a formal complaint with the FRMF disputes committee or even pleads his case and defends his interests at FIFA or the CAS. This virtual billionaire finds himself on the street for a few months or a few years while waiting for the check that will eventually arrive.
Today, 40 files concerning Moroccan clubs are before the competent FIFA committee. They do not only concern first and second division entities, since amateur and women’s football are also concerned. And at this rate, Moroccan football will end up being blacklisted by Fifpro or FIFA.
This inflationary trend also has a boomerang effect. It discourages any potential investor. Who would put their money into a loss-making club? What manager would consider getting involved without knowing the state of his club’s finances inside out? What investment fund would be likely to take the risk of coming into a bubble that is about to burst?
Obviously the answer is obvious: no one, especially since the legal architecture linked to the famous law 30/09 is another deterrent. The start of the 2024/2025 financial year is the perfect illustration of this state of affairs. Raja has a deficit of 43 million dirhams, and has not yet been able to qualify its players. In Tangier, the IRT company is in conflict with the association, due to a lack of supporting documents for expenses. In Tetouan, it is a provisional commission that manages a club in a precarious situation. As for MAS, it must undergo a financial facelift with the aim of resolving an abysmal debt. Finally, it is an SOS that an SCCM must launch, in the midst of a sporting and financial collapse.
The panorama should not encourage optimism. It is the reflection of a football that lives beyond its means, of a microcosm where the terms transparency, truthful discourse with supporters and rigorous management are not on the agenda. So dear leaders, while waiting for a necessary upgrade before the 2030 World Cup, continue your Moroccoto Made in Khoroto. Waste, spend and above all do not hesitate to pass the hot potato to your successor who will brilliantly continue your policy of headlong flight. And unless there is a decisive intervention from the Moroccan football policeman, that is to say the famous National Directorate of Control and Management, and without strong sporting and financial decisions, Moroccoto still has good days ahead of it.
