{"id":7119,"date":"2026-07-18T16:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T15:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=7119"},"modified":"2026-07-18T16:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T15:08:12","slug":"between-the-rule-of-law-and-institutional-inertia-has-the-directorate-of-sports-become-a-crisis-manager-rather-than-an-agent-of-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/between-the-rule-of-law-and-institutional-inertia-has-the-directorate-of-sports-become-a-crisis-manager-rather-than-an-agent-of-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Between the Rule of Law and Institutional Inertia\u2026 Has the Directorate of Sports Become a Crisis Manager Rather Than an Agent of Reform?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Within Morocco&#8217;s sporting landscape, the recurring crises affecting several national sports federations can no longer be dismissed as isolated internal disputes or temporary electoral conflicts. They have evolved into a structural phenomenon that raises profound questions about the rule of law, the limits of government oversight, and the nature of the relationship between the state authority responsible for sport and the institutions entrusted with managing it. Against this backdrop, a lengthy commentary dedicated to El Hadj Akkari, Director of the Directorate of Sports, has opened a debate that extends far beyond personalities, placing Morocco&#8217;s entire model of sports governance under close public scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"x1ejq31n x18oe1m7 x1sy0etr xstzfhl x6ikm8r x10wlt62\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdaoud.mohamed.1401%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0aQeNUN6a7zHipfkQfsC3rrLC3jp4KjM1QwhndEsXNdjdtNoaLhNFysHMCndj7q1bl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"635\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The most striking feature of the commentary lies in the way it is constructed. It begins by portraying El Hadj Akkari as an accomplished academic, an experienced administrator, and a senior official with deep knowledge of both the Ministry&#8217;s inner workings and the realities of sports federations. Yet this praise is not the ultimate objective. Instead, it serves as the foundation for a more challenging question: if competence, legal expertise, and institutional experience are all present within the Directorate of Sports, why do the same governance failures continue to surface across numerous sports federations?<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">This rhetorical approach makes it clear that the author&#8217;s real concern is not the individual himself but rather the institution he represents. The discussion gradually shifts from evaluating one official to examining the effectiveness of the entire governance system. It transforms what appears to be a personal tribute into a broader institutional assessment of public sports administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Reading between the lines reveals a deeper criticism. The Directorate of Sports, according to the author&#8217;s implicit argument, appears to have become an institution that manages crises rather than one that prevents or resolves them. The author rejects the notion that ministry officials should merely function as &#8220;firefighters,&#8221; intervening only after disputes erupt while leaving the underlying causes untouched. This powerful metaphor goes beyond administrative criticism; it questions the very philosophy of public management, suggesting that reactive governance has replaced strategic reform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">From there, the discussion naturally moves into the legal dimension of the issue. The author argues that the government&#8217;s authority should not be reduced to suspending annual grants allocated to federations that fail to comply with the legal requirements governing their general assemblies. Such a measure, although legitimate, represents only one instrument among many provided by law. Since sports federations administer public sporting disciplines under a delegated public mandate, the state remains legally responsible for safeguarding legality, democratic governance, transparency, and institutional accountability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">At this point, the article tackles one of the most sensitive debates within international sports governance: the concept of federation autonomy. For years, certain federation leaders have relied on the statutes of international and continental governing bodies to argue that government intervention constitutes an unacceptable interference in sporting affairs. The author firmly challenges this interpretation, describing it as an overly simplistic reading of international principles. In his view, institutional autonomy does not exempt federations from compliance with national legislation. Rather, it protects sporting decisions from political interference while preserving the state&#8217;s legitimate responsibility to ensure respect for the law and democratic governance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">This reasoning significantly broadens the scope of responsibility. The issue is no longer confined to the federations themselves. It also encompasses the supervisory authority. By arguing that failure to enforce the legal framework reflects shortcomings on the part of both the Ministry and the Directorate of Sports, the author shifts the debate toward institutional accountability. The question is no longer simply whether federations have violated legal procedures, but whether the state has fully exercised the powers granted to it by law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The reference to federations such as karate, kickboxing, swimming, and motorcycle sports is equally deliberate. These are not random examples; they represent disciplines that have experienced governance controversies, disputed elections, legal appeals, contested general assemblies, or accusations of administrative mismanagement in recent years. Their inclusion suggests that the author is describing not isolated incidents but a recurring governance pattern affecting multiple sectors of Moroccan sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The consequences of this situation extend well beyond federation executives and elected officials. Thousands of athletes, coaches, referees, clubs, and local associations ultimately bear the cost of prolonged institutional instability. Administrative disputes delay competitions, disrupt athlete development programs, weaken preparation for international events, and deprive emerging talent of opportunities to progress. At the same time, repeated governance crises undermine the confidence of investors, sponsors, and commercial partners, reducing the economic attractiveness of Morocco&#8217;s sports sector and limiting its capacity to generate sustainable investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Beyond the legal and economic implications lies an even broader institutional question: what should be the role of the state in governing public sports? Should public authorities intervene only after conflicts have reached a critical stage, limiting themselves to damage control? Or should they exercise their legal powers proactively to prevent institutional crises before they emerge?<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">In reality, the commentary is not a personal criticism of El Hadj Akkari. On the contrary, the author repeatedly emphasizes his confidence in Akkari&#8217;s integrity, professionalism, and expertise. Yet it is precisely these acknowledged qualities that give rise to the central question: what value do competence, legal knowledge, and administrative experience truly have if they remain constrained by institutional inertia, bureaucratic limitations, or political considerations that prevent meaningful reform?<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The closing words, &#8220;To be continued\u2026&#8221;, deserve particular attention. They do not conclude the discussion; they prepare the ground for its next phase. This first installment establishes the legal, institutional, and ethical framework of the debate. The anticipated continuation is likely to introduce more direct questions, more concrete examples, and perhaps even explicit scrutiny of specific governance practices or decision-makers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ultimately, this commentary is not merely about the internal affairs of a handful of sports federations. It challenges the broader philosophy of public governance in Morocco. It raises fundamental questions about the capacity of state institutions to transform legal provisions into effective practice, to make good governance an operational reality rather than a rhetorical principle, and to reconcile the legitimate autonomy of sports organizations with the equally fundamental principle of the rule of law. In the end, the debate extends well beyond sport itself\u2014it becomes a test of institutional credibility, democratic accountability, and the state&#8217;s ability to protect the public interest while ensuring that delegated public institutions remain fully accountable to the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Within Morocco&#8217;s sporting landscape, the recurring crises affecting several national sports federations can no longer be dismissed as isolated internal disputes or temporary electoral conflicts. They have evolved into a structural phenomenon that raises profound questions about the rule of law, the limits of government oversight, and the nature of the relationship between the state [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,12,16,17,97,19,45,100,99,49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing-news","8":"category-jiujitsu-bresilien","9":"category-freestyle-wrestling","10":"category-judo","11":"category-kara","12":"category-kick-kickboxing-muay-thai","13":"category-mma","14":"category-muay-thai","15":"category-taekwondo-other-martial-arts","16":"category-wrestling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7121,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7119\/revisions\/7121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}