Morocco’s Sports Minister Launches Sweeping Dismissals Amid Stadium Delays

An unprecedented cleanup is underway at the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The impressive wave of dismissals launched by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Rachid Talbi Alami, continues to make headlines. A source within the Ministry of Youth and Sports, quoted by Telquel, confirmed that "several senior officials at the ministry have been dismissed by ministerial decision".

One of the most important figures in this department to have fallen victim to ministerial rigor is none other than Kamal Hajhouj, director of the Mohammed VI Sports Complex in Casablanca, the Mohammadia Nautical Base and the Bourgogne reception center. This is, points out Telquel, a "state-owned establishment managed autonomously".

Several reasons justify this dismissal, among which we can retain, according to this media, "the dilapidated state of several covered halls of the Complex, but above all the delay in the opening of the Mohammed V Sports Complex" (the football stadium, editor’s note). The same source presents a less than enviable state of affairs. Indeed, the enclosure has been off-limits since December 19, 2018 due to "renovation work on the exterior part of the Complex, the sound system and the lawn which has deteriorated due to the accumulation of matches". However, it is clear that "its opening planned for the end of May has still not taken place".

A situation that has not escaped the minister’s anger, who has simply decided to clean house. Thus, the site specifies, several heads of divisions, services and units at the central administration level have also been ousted. But the decentralized services have not escaped the sanctions of the Minister of Youth and Sports, Rachid Talbi Alami. This is how several regional and provincial directors have been relieved of their duties, in particular the regional directors of the Oriental and Fès-Meknès regions.

To turn this page and put things in order in the "Youth and Sports" house, the minister launched on May 21 a call for applications "exclusively for civil servants and contract employees currently working within the Ministry of Youth and Sports", in order to fill the vacant positions.