Researcher Abderrzak El Akari has just published a new book entitled “Sport in Morocco: mode of governance and development prospects”.
Published by “La Croisée des chemins” editions, this book deals with sport as a societal phenomenon, which has been able to gradually integrate all of society’s activities and adapt to the concepts and requirements of modern times.
This cultural production comes a few months from the unprecedented feat achieved by the Moroccan national football team at the “Qatar 2022” World Cup, by reaching the magic square, for the first time in its history.
El Akari starts from the simple observation that the sports field, particularly in Morocco, is still in an embryonic state and requires building bridges between its strategic and operational management with the application of scientific research tools thus allowing a better understanding of the phenomenon. sport, its fundamentals, its players, its challenges, its mode of organization and its various interactions with a highly fluctuating environment.
Throughout 400 pages, the book follows a logical thread, especially chronological, and according to a historical, descriptive and critical approach around the different components of the sports system in Morocco.
In short, the book approaches, beforehand, the traditional sports which attest to a Morocco of yesteryear having its own playful games which designate its perception of the body, the environment and its social ramifications. He also pays particular attention to the analysis of public sports policies aimed at understanding public action, in its broadest sense (its genesis, its actors, the interdependencies of stakeholders, its scheduling, its process of in execution…).
Subsequently, he examines the legal framework governing sport in Morocco, which is one of the projects of an urgent nature, initiated just after the holding of the National Conference on Sport, in October 2008.
The book also focuses on the governance of high-level sport in Morocco, in this case the actors involved and their mode of interaction. It also declines the points of view of the aforementioned actors on the current state of this sporting segment in Morocco and on the means likely to ensure its development.
Subsequently, the book carries out a study on the different impacts of the organization of a sports event on the territory, the degree of involvement of the territorial actors in the process of organization and the verification of the question of heritage left by this event.
Finally, the book deals with the relationship between sport and sustainable development and how said sport can concretely integrate the country’s overall development project.
Abderrzak El Akari, former director of the Royal Institute for the training of youth and sports executives, is a professor of higher education in the management of sports organizations. He is the author of several books and scientific articles on public policy and territorial governance in the sports field.