WISDOM FROM WAFCON24-25

As a seasoned adventurer abroad across all continents in sport and life away from the field, you might expect much wisdom to be gleaned from my month in Morocco for WAFCON24-25, so let me share what I learned.

Wonderful WAFCON (Women's African Cup Of Nations)

Another African adventure and WAFCON was wonderful in three major aspects:

A. Caringly-playful culture continues

It was confirmed that the caringly-playful culture, which I enjoyed while coaching football for women and girls 15-20 years ago, is still present today.

Indeed some might say that it could be even richer here with the diversity on display - not least the beautiful Botswanan team singing as they marched onto the pitch. Yes I fell in love with their attitude and approach to football with a culture reminiscent of Scottish football clubs like Rangers and Hibernian, although the Botswanans can actually sing.

B. Inspired and inspirational women

It was very insightful to connect professionally, intellectually and socially with such inspirational women as:

• The fantastically two-footed Rasha Elghorour about her exciting next step(overs);

• Terry the hearty Kenyan with her passions for FIFpro and beach football;

• Lovely Lucienne with her food leadership and perseverance at communication despite little language in common;

• Powerfully-connecting Kabura Eugenie from Burundi;

• Jacqueline leading thought through the technical analysis of performance at WAFCON;

• Aboulfath Salma the young Moroccan referee with a great future and good style in a waistcoat;

• Energetic Eni Aluko on her cultural mission with Hyphenate; and even

• Football agents doing good like Lindi Ngwenya and Emelia Aggouras from SISU.

C. Supportive Men for Women's Football

At all levels of the game here, men are supporting this tournament for women, ranging from:

• Delightfully-dressed Nigerian Shehu Dikko, and

• Abakar Muller - the most engaging host, and

• Strategically-smart Sidney Acquaye, to

• Very caring CAF volunteers like Rida Taihari and Charaf Bouzine.

Despite the great efforts in leadership and support by the many inspiring individuals whom I have had the honour and pleasure of meeting here, this competition faces almost-intractable challenges to establish itself sustainably. That is true in all senses of sustainability: financial, legal, operational, logistical, and more.

Challenging Africa

Morocco is marvellous but this month has also enlightened me on the challenges of organising a tournament like this in Africa:

1. From unreliable ticketing; to a

2. Frustrating lack of infrastructure for public transport; to a

3. Shortage of options for accommodation and catering; and more.

More importantly, there is an essential opportunity for CAF to improve player safety and discipline. In the WAFCON24-25 final between Morocco and Nigeria, issues arose from similar sources of risk and the Moroccan media has since come out to complain. It will not be easy but these issues can be solved with a variety of tactics, such as those which I have designed and/or delivered while working as a Chief Financial and Legal Officer for entrepreneurs and plcs, then in the governance of sports in England.

The African continent has progressed significantly in the last decade but it has much further to go in the half decade until the FIFA World Cup in 2030. It is clear that there's a lot more than mere stadia yet to be constructed before AFCON 2025 in December, let alone the FIFA World Cup. Five years will fly by, so I hope that the Moroccan authorities are ready to get into the construction of much more infrastructure.

Atlantic Waves to Marvellous Morocco

Well, it's time for me to say au revoir to Morocco and it's important to ask whether I would come back and why.

A. People

The Moroccan people have been absolutely wonderful with me: patient, caring, kind and funny. After a month of awful grabbing at my arms in another African country last year, I came to Morocco with mostly long-sleeved shirts (despite advanced awareness that I was flying into 44C heat). However it has not been at all grabby here (except once with police at the airport and even then he was protecting me). Or maybe I've just become very undesirable since the last trip 😅 either way, chokran Morocco for bothering me even less than London.

B. Buildings and Culture

While Egypt in February wowed me with buildings dating back farther than most people care to consider, Moroccan buildings are so young that they even make London look old. Yet there's an abundance of cultural history here dating back to the Phoenicians. Not to mention the curious origins of the name Casablanca (yes it means 'white house' but no the name did not come from the Spanish). Sure, come to Marrakech if you want to follow the old hippy trail but do get out into the four imperial kingdoms and beyond.

Despite the sweetest sandstone kasbah in Rabat with its most artistic doorways, one of the most beautiful sights I saw here was:

C. Cafes and Cats

The proprietor of a cafe in Rabat Medina ignoring all of the cats begging until a pregnant cat came in and then he gave it a whole sardine.

Possibly the perfect analogy for the purpose of my adventure here (and I'm allergic to most cats).

Only shared a smattering of my photos in this article. Let me know if you would like to see more or discuss anything about the trip.

Like the wonderful people of CAF and this country, I'm going to take a few days off to catch up on the weekends missed but as usual my emails are covered for any urgent matter that arises.

Graham Smith

Rabat, Morocco