Morocco Football Chief Fouzi Lekjaa Leads Party to Election Win

Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) and the country’s budget minister, has emerged as a central figure in Moroccan politics after the party he joined weeks before the vote, the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), won the most seats in the September 23, 2026 parliamentary election, according to final results announced by Morocco’s Interior Ministry on September 25, 2026 and reported by the Associated Press.

PAM secured 97 of 395 seats in the House of Representatives, up from 87 seats in the 2021 election, according to Reuters. The Rassemblement National des Indépendants (RNI) finished second with 66 seats and the Istiqlal party took 65 seats, meaning no single party secured the absolute majority needed to govern alone.

Direct Answer: What Happened and Why It Matters to Football

Morocco’s football federation president Fouzi Lekjaa, who also holds the government post of minister delegate for the budget and chairs the organizing committee for the 2030 World Cup finals, joined PAM’s leadership shortly before the September 23, 2026 election. Reuters reported that PAM’s rise to the top of the vote count was “bolstered by the recruitment of Fouzi Lekjaa, Morocco’s football federation chief and two-time government budget manager, who joined weeks before the vote.” The result places one of African football’s most powerful administrators at the center of a coalition-building process that will shape Morocco’s government heading into the 2030 World Cup, which the country is set to co-host with Spain and Portugal.

Election Results at a Glance

Final results confirmed by Morocco’s Interior Ministry on September 25, 2026 showed a fragmented parliament, with PAM finishing well ahead of its rivals but far short of the 198 seats needed for a majority.

How we know: seat totals for 2026 are sourced from the Associated Press report of the Interior Ministry’s final results published September 25, 2026, and from Reuters’ September 24, 2026 report on preliminary results; 2021 comparison figures for PAM are from Reuters’ same report, which noted PAM held 87 seats previously.

Who Is Fouzi Lekjaa

Lekjaa, 56, was born in Berkane, Morocco, in 1970. He trained in agronomy before attending Morocco’s National School of Administration, then joined the General Inspection of Finance in 1997 and rose through the finance ministry, becoming director of the budget in January 2011 and minister delegate in charge of the budget in October 2021. He has served as president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation since April 13, 2014, a tenure that has coincided with the Atlas Lions’ rise to a historic fourth-place finish at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and Morocco’s growing footprint as a football hosting power, including the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and the co-hosted 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal.

Reuters described Lekjaa as the man “credited with leading the national football team to global fame,” directly tying his political momentum to his football administration record. The AP reported that PAM, founded by a royal adviser close to King Mohammed VI, moved from second-largest member of the outgoing governing coalition to the top spot in this election.

A Historically Low Turnout

Turnout in the September 23, 2026 vote was 38.02%, according to Morocco’s interior ministry as cited by Reuters, down sharply from 50% in the 2021 election. The Associated Press reported the figure similarly rounded to 38%, calling it the lowest turnout since 2007 and describing the election as taking place “after Gen Z protests” tied to social and economic grievances. Africanews separately characterized the participation rate as a “two-decade low.”

France24 reported the vote took place amid “social concerns” and described PAM’s strategy explicitly: the party “recruited a popular figure, Budget Minister Fouzi Lekjaa, better known for his role as head of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation,” to boost its standing with voters disillusioned by economic conditions.

Is Lekjaa Headed to the Prime Minister’s Office?

Under Morocco’s constitution, the king appoints the prime minister from the party that wins the most parliamentary seats. Reuters reported that Lekjaa is “now seen as a strong potential candidate for prime minister,” while Al Jazeera similarly named him as “another potential candidate” for the post. Neither outlet reported an official nomination as of this writing — both frame the prime ministership as speculative rather than confirmed, and no coalition or government has yet been formed. Morocco’s political process now moves into coalition talks, since PAM’s 97 seats leave it well short of the 198-seat threshold for a governing majority on its own.

This is not the only recent instance of football and national governance intersecting in North African politics — football finances across the Middle East and North Africa have increasingly drawn state-level attention as clubs and federations expand their commercial reach ahead of the next World Cup cycle.

The Concentration-of-Power Question

Lekjaa’s simultaneous roles as FRMF president, government budget minister, chairman of the 2030 World Cup organizing committee, and now a senior figure in Morocco’s leading political party have drawn attention from international coverage of the vote, though no rights group or opposition party issued a direct, quoted public criticism of the arrangement in the reporting available at the time of publication. France24 and other outlets framed him as a uniquely powerful figure moving between state, sports, and party roles simultaneously — a combination that is unusual even by the standards of politically connected sports administrators elsewhere in the world.

There is no confirmed FIFA or CAF rule barring a national federation president from holding government office or a political party role, based on the reporting reviewed for this article. Lekjaa’s dual identity as both a state budget official and the man overseeing Morocco’s flagship sporting infrastructure investment — including 2030 World Cup stadiums and training facilities — has nonetheless made him one of the most closely watched power brokers to emerge from this election cycle.

Background: Morocco’s Football-Fueled Global Profile

Morocco’s football program has become a genuine source of national prestige over the past four years, headlined by the men’s national team’s run to the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup — the first African and Arab nation to reach that stage of the tournament. That success, paired with Morocco’s successful bids to host the Africa Cup of Nations and its role as co-host of the 2030 World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal, has elevated the profile of the federation that governs the sport domestically, and by extension its president.

Lekjaa has overseen the FRMF since April 2014, a period spanning multiple hosting bids, infrastructure expansion, and the buildup toward 2030. His visibility as the face of that success appears to have been a deliberate asset for PAM, according to Reuters and France24’s reporting, both of which framed his recruitment explicitly as a vote-winning strategy rather than a routine political appointment.

What Happens Next

• Coalition negotiations begin following the September 25, 2026 confirmation of final results, since no party won the 198 seats required for a majority.
• King Mohammed VI is constitutionally required to appoint a prime minister from PAM, the party with the most seats, though no date for that appointment had been reported as of this writing.
• Lekjaa’s future roles — whether he retains the FRMF presidency alongside any expanded government position — remain unconfirmed in current reporting.
• Preparations for the 2030 World Cup, which Lekjaa chairs the organizing committee for, continue regardless of the political outcome, with Morocco, Spain and Portugal jointly hosting the tournament.

Limitations and What Remains Unconfirmed

Several elements of this story remain unresolved. No outlet reviewed for this article has confirmed whether Lekjaa will be formally nominated as prime minister, only that he is widely discussed as a candidate. No official statement from Lekjaa himself, the FRMF, or PAM leadership directly addressing his dual role was available in the sourced reporting at the time of publication. Coalition talks and any resulting cabinet or leadership appointments had not been finalized as of September 25, 2026, the date of the last confirmed development in this story.

The Associated Press noted the election followed a period of “Gen Z protests” driven by economic and social grievances, adding context to the historically low turnout figure. Any further developments regarding government formation, Lekjaa’s eventual role, and reaction from football governance bodies will determine how this story evolves in the weeks ahead.

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Sources

• Moroccan centrist party tops parliament vote after boost … — reuters.com
• Morocco’s PAM wins election as coalition talks loom — thenationalnews.com
• Fouzi Lekjaa and the PAM win in Morocco with the 2030 … — democrata.es
• Morocco’s football chief emerges as possible prime … — africa.businessinsider.com
• Will Lekjaa Lead Morocco’s Next Government After PAM … — ground.news