CAF statutes tailor-made for Morocco

Going unnoticed, the modification of the statutes of the African Football Confederation prevents a potential accession of countries not recognized by the United Nations.

“We are fully entering international legality! "First vice-president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), Hamza El Hajoui commented a few days ago in the press of the Cherifian kingdom on the amendment of article 4 of the statutes of the African Football Confederation (CAF) .

On Friday March 12, CAF indeed decided to modify its statutes. The member of the FRMF ensures that "no non-member state of the United Nations can sit in an international body of a cultural, sporting or other nature". And that it is therefore normal that, during the 43rd Ordinary and Elective General Assembly of CAF, the Confederation decided to limit memberships to countries recognized by the United Nations.

Until then, article 4 of the statutes of CAF stipulated that "the African Football Confederation is open to all applications from African national associations as official representatives managing football in their respective countries". Without specifying whether or not the countries concerned should be recognized by the UN.

SADR, Zanzibar and Somaliland out

A glimmer of hope for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which cherished the sweet dream, supported by Algeria, of becoming a full member of CAF in the years to come. Suffice to say that the new CAF membership rule has been widely commented on in Morocco, where we welcome the exclusion, de facto, of the "ghostly" SADR, or in Algeria, where the press speaks of "resolution of shame ". In addition to the SADR, the amendment of the statutes of CAF blocks a possible membership of Zanzibar or Somaliland.

For Morocco, this vote was in any case the culmination of a long lobbying operation. The kingdom worked behind the scenes, the weeks preceding the election of the president of CAF, to help the various candidates to agree on a consensual vote in favor of the South African Patrice Motsepe. A conciliation operation between Senegal, Mauritania and Côte d'Ivoire which resulted in an agreement.

The amendment of article 4 of the statutes of the African Football Confederation seems to be a gift of thanks to Morocco for its role played during the campaign. Even if, specifies the FRMF, "this proposal, developed for a long time, has already been mentioned for 3 or 4 years". Second gift made to Morocco during this general assembly: the election of Fouzi Lekjaa as a member of the FIFA Council.