MOROCCO’S MOUAD HAJJI BECOMES CAF’S 5TH GENERAL SECRETARY

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

With the dismissal of Amr Fahmy as the General Secretary of CAF last week, the confederation on Tuesday announced the appointment of Mouad Hajji, a Moroccan as the replacement.

Sports Village Square can confirm that Hajji, a Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Morocco, becomes the fifth person since 1961 to occupy the seat and also the second Moroccan to break the dynasty of Egypt’s Fahmy Family.

The other Moroccan to head the CAF Secretariat was Hicham El Amrani, who replaced Amr Fahmy’s father, Mustapha after the Egyptian moved to Zurich as the director of competitions at FIFA.

El Amrani resigned his position after long-standing CAF president, Issa Hayatou of Cameroon was ousted by Ahmad.

According to a media statement by CAF, its Executive Committee decided on the restructuring of the CAF Administration at its last meeting. Among the steps taken was the dismissal of Amr Fahmy as General Secretary.

Even though no reason was given, a publication in Europe, insideworldfootball.com alleged that the dismissed scribe was punished on allegation of complicity in corruption allegation against the CAF president.

The Deputy General Secretary in charge of Administration and Finance, Essadik Alaoui, who hierarchically should have taken over from Fahmy was reported to have departed on amicable understanding with the confederation.

For that reason, the decision to appoint Mouad Hajji was with immediate effect. The CAF meetings of last week Thursday and Friday chaired by CAF President Ahmad Ahmad also saw Mouad Hajji assume his position as CAF General Secretary.

According to CAF, Hajji is known in the football world. He previously served in various capacities at the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football (FRMF) including Administrative Manager of the national teams and General Coordinator in charge of International Relations from 2014 to 2018. He also held the position of Deputy Director of the Local Organising Committee for the FIFA Club World Cup hosted in Morocco in 2014.

 As Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Youth and Sports in his native Morocco, he was the brain behind several projects notably the “Sports Studies” program in six different disciplines between 2009 and 2011.

PAST GENERAL SECRATARIES OF CAF

• Mourad Fahmy, Egypt (1961 – 1982)
• Mostapha Fahmy, Egypt  (1962 -2010)
• Hicham El Amrani, Morocco (2010 -2017)
• Amr Fahmy, Egypt (2017 -2019)