Beni Mellal – Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) and member of the FIFA Council, marked the 10th anniversary of Gianni Infantino’s election as FIFA president on Wednesday with a video message published on the FRMF’s social media accounts.
Lekjaa praised a decade of institutional reform and outlined the tangible gains Morocco has secured under the Italian-Swiss-Lebanese president, who received his Lebanese passport in Beirut on February 16 after being granted citizenship by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
Infantino was elected to lead FIFA on February 26, 2016. Lekjaa, who first joined the FIFA Council in March 2021 and was re-elected to a second four-year term in Cairo in March 2025 with 49 out of 52 votes, offered a detailed account of what he described as a structural overhaul of world football’s governing body.
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“What he has achieved is enormous,” Lekjaa said. “It is a global metamorphosis of FIFA.” He pointed specifically to governance reform, describing “a total revision of FIFA’s governance, particularly the financial clean-up, which multiplied revenues and resources, and subsequently allowed development efforts to be doubled and tripled across all continents.”
Lekjaa also cited competition reform as a central pillar of the Infantino era. “Revisions and reforms related to competitions, starting from the men’s World Cup by increasing the number of teams, through to all competitions across all age categories, both men’s and women’s football,” he affirmed.
“Gianni Infantino has delivered qualitative leaps at FIFA level through a logic of globalizing football,” Lekjaa stressed.
Among the outcomes he credited to this broader shift, in this context, Lekjaa mentioned Morocco’s selection as a co-host of the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal.
“This has allowed the African continent and the FRMF to have the honor of participating alongside Spain and Portugal to co-organize the 2030 World Cup for the second time on African soil, in a logic of three countries and two continents celebrating the centenary of football,” he stated.
The FRMF chief also pointed to the establishment of FIFA’s Africa regional office in Rabat as a landmark development. The office, based at the Mohammed VI Football Complex, was inaugurated on July 26, 2025, following an agreement signed by Infantino, Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch, and Lekjaa himself.
“He allowed the FRMF to host FIFA’s headquarters for Africa here in Rabat, which is enormous,” Lekjaa added, continuing that the office “offers an opportunity for development, training, and management.” He noted that federations across Africa and worldwide have benefited from the resulting development programs, “whether at the level of infrastructure or coaching.”
“All African and global federations, like us, have benefited from the resources allocated to development, which has accelerated football development programs, both at the level of infrastructure and coaching,” Lekjaa noted.
Lekjaa, who also holds the position of CAF’s first vice president and heads Morocco’s 2030 World Cup preparation committee, closed his message with a broad assessment of the period. “Overall, we are witnessing a gentle revolution in world football and a deep transformation of FIFA. I wish him full courage, and we are all behind Gianni Infantino to continue this work.”
