“When I saw, at the end of a match between the teams AS FAR (Rabat-based football club) and Assa Zag (a province located in the South of Morocco) boys run up to the female players to ask for their autographs, I realized that women’s football had gained in popularity and that it is no longer marginalized,” recalls Leila El Yousfi, coordinator of Morocco’s sports-study program . In fact, a tangible social “revolution” has been taking place in the country in line with the emergence of the Atlas Lionesses, the Moroccan national female football team, which has succeeded in making a name for itself on the international scene. The team’s remarkable journey – in tournaments such as the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 and the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia – has earned international respect for the players, and has inspired interest in women’s football among Moroccan supporters.
Their success is by no means down to chance. In recent years, the Kingdom of Morocco has actually made the bold decision to massively invest in women’s football. Its annual budget has increased tenfold, reaching over 650 million dirhams (around 65 million U.S. dollars). Development programs have been set up to encourage girls to get involved in the sport, and sports-study pathways have been opened, creating the foundation for women’s football to form a solid structure.
