Morocco’s football federation orders academies to adopt national identities

The Federation Royale Marocaine de Football (FRMF) has banned local football academies and training schools from using the names of foreign clubs, including where formal partnerships or other links exist.

The decision was announced in a statement issued on Sunday and forms part of a wider move to strengthen the national identity and independence of Morocco’s private football academies.

The FRMF said: “This ban concerns academies and schools that have partnerships with these clubs or any other type of links.”

Under the new policy, local organisations will no longer be permitted to operate under imported club names. The measure raises questions over the future of structures such as Juventus Academy Maroc, which are now directly affected by the federation’s reform.

The FRMF said the decision was intended to “strengthen the national training and supervision component” and to “establish the principle of autonomy for private football academies and schools, in perfect harmony with the national strategic directions for the development of football”.

It also said the policy was designed to “train new generations of footballers in a compact environment”.

The federation’s announcement represents a form of “Moroccanisation” of the country’s academy system. While the statement did not detail how existing organisations will be expected to change their names or structures, academies connected to foreign clubs have been placed in a difficult position by the new regulations.

According to information from SNRTnews, the ruling also requires academies and schools to comply with strict standards covering infrastructure, equipment, insurance, safety and the qualifications of coaches.

Those requirements come at a time when coaches from Morocco are increasingly valued in Africa and the Middle East. The FRMF’s reference to national supervision therefore places greater emphasis on domestic technical expertise as part of the country’s football-development strategy.

The federation’s position is that academies and private schools should operate with greater autonomy while remaining aligned with the national priorities established for football development. It also wants the training environment to be more unified as it seeks to prepare future generations of Moroccan players.

Foreign club partnerships and links remain specifically covered by the ban, meaning the policy applies not only to academies carrying a foreign club’s name but also to those with an association of another kind.

The announcement has placed Juventus Academy Maroc and similar programmes at the centre of attention as the consequences of the reform become clearer. Their relationship with international clubs may now need to be reflected without using those clubs’ names as the identities of Moroccan academies or football schools.

The FRMF has not provided further details in the statement about the timetable for implementation. However, its announcement makes clear that local academy naming, operating standards and coaching qualifications are now being addressed as part of the same national framework.