Houssine Kharja After Fouzi Lekjaa at the FRMF? He Finally Answers
The Royal Moroccan Football Federation presidential election has been postponed to September 2026. Since then one name keeps coming up: Houssine Kharja, born in France, trained at PSG, 79 caps for Morocco, now a FIFA regional director. His answer was not the expected one.
TL;DR
On 5 June 2026 the Royal Moroccan Football Federation held its extraordinary and ordinary general assemblies at the Mohammed VI Complex in Maâmora. The presidential election itself was postponed to September. Fouzi Lekjaa, in office since April 2014, remains in charge until then.
Since that postponement, the sports press has floated one name: Houssine Kharja. Born in Poissy, France, trained at Paris Saint-Germain, 79 caps for Morocco, he is now FIFA's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
On 9 August, he answered. And he said Morocco has the best president the federation has ever known.
Nothing is settled, no candidacy has been filed. What follows describes a press hypothesis, not a decision.
What happened on 5 June
The FRMF held its extraordinary and ordinary general assemblies at the Mohammed VI Complex in Maâmora. The extraordinary session covered amendments to the federation's statutes, the ordinary one the accounts and activity reports.
The elective assembly, the one that appoints the president, did not take place that day. It was pushed back to September 2026.
Fouzi Lekjaa has led the federation since April 2014 and was reaching the end of his third term. He stays in post until the elective assembly is held. He is also vice-president of the Confederation of African Football and a member of the FIFA Council.
The Moroccan press points to Law 30.09 on physical education and sport as the basis for him remaining in office, a text that allows a president to be kept on when they hold strategic responsibilities in a continental or international body. We report what the press writes; the federation has issued no official reason.
A few months of delay opened a space for speculation. That is where Houssine Kharja's name appeared.
Houssine Kharja, from Poissy to the Atlas Lions
This is where the story becomes ours.
Houssine Kharja was born on 9 November 1982 in Poissy, in the Paris region, to Moroccan parents. He came through the Paris Saint-Germain academy between 1993 and 1998, then Gazélec Ajaccio.
His playing career happened elsewhere. Sporting CP B, then more than a decade in Italy: Ternana, AS Roma on loan, Piacenza, Siena, Genoa, Internazionale on loan, Fiorentina. Then Qatar with Al-Arabi, a return to France at Sochaux, and Steaua Bucharest to finish.
Between 2003 and 2015 he wore the Morocco shirt 79 times and scored 13 goals.
A kid from the Paris suburbs, trained at PSG, who played nearly eighty times for the Atlas Lions. For Moroccan families in France, that path is not abstract. It is their children's.
Today he is FIFA's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. He moved from the pitch to the administration of world football, which is rare, and which partly explains why his name circulates.
Why his name keeps coming up
Three points recur in the articles raising this hypothesis.
He knows the Moroccan dressing room from the inside, after twelve years in the national team. He knows how FIFA works, as an executive there. And he comes from the diaspora, at a time when much of the Moroccan squad is made up of players born or trained abroad.
Then there is the calendar. Morocco co-hosts the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal. Whoever runs the federation through that period will be watched well beyond sport.
These three arguments belong to the press, not to a candidacy file. No public element links Houssine Kharja to any such move.
His answer, and the twist
Speaking to the Moroccan platform Soccer212, Houssine Kharja did not feed the rumour. He dismissed it.
He said Morocco currently has "the best president the federation has ever known", and that Fouzi Lekjaa is someone for whom he has "great esteem and deep respect". His comments were relayed by Morocco World News on 9 August 2026.
That is the most interesting moment in the whole sequence. He is linked to a job and answers by defending the man who holds it. In a world where ambitions are usually signalled between the lines, that is a flat denial.
Two readings are possible, and we will settle neither. Either there is nothing, and a name floated somewhere snowballed. Or there is something, and a FIFA executive knows you do not declare yourself weeks before an elective assembly. The only verifiable fact today is what he said.
What we do not know
Let us be clear about the limits of this article.
The federation has issued no official reason for the postponement. No candidacy has been filed or announced, Houssine Kharja's included. And the Moroccan press sees Fouzi Lekjaa as the favourite for a fourth term.
In other words, the hypothesis everyone is discussing is denied by the man concerned, and the incumbent starts ahead. The date that matters is in September.
What it says to Moroccans abroad
Beyond football, there is a signal here.
Over the past fifteen years the Moroccan national team has been built on players born in Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, Turin or the Paris suburbs. Children of emigration who chose their parents' shirt. Houssine Kharja is one of them, at a time when the road was far less marked out.
That his name is now mentioned for the federation presidency, whatever becomes of the rumour, marks a step. The diaspora is no longer only a pool of players. It now produces administrators.
Frequently asked questions
Who leads the FRMF today?
Fouzi Lekjaa, in office since April 2014. He remains president until the elective general assembly is held.
When will the FRMF election take place?
In September 2026. It was due at the 5 June 2026 assembly and was postponed. The federation has issued no official reason.
Is Houssine Kharja a candidate?
No. No candidacy has been filed or announced. Asked about the hypothesis, he publicly dismissed it and praised the sitting president.
Where was Houssine Kharja born?
In Poissy, in the Paris region, on 9 November 1982, to Moroccan parents. He was trained at Paris Saint-Germain.
How many caps does he have for Morocco?
79 caps and 13 goals between 2003 and 2015.
What does Houssine Kharja do today?
He is FIFA's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Is this election linked to the 2030 World Cup?
Morocco co-hosts the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal, so the federation's leadership over that period will be closely followed. No official link has been established between the two matters.
Sources
- •Morocco World News, "Houssine Kharja: We Have the Best FRMF President in History", 9 August 2026, based on an interview given to Soccer212
- •Le360 Sport, H24info, Bladi and Maroc Hebdo, reports on the FRMF general assemblies of 5 June 2026 and the postponement of the election to September
- •Médias24 and Le Matin, convocation of the FRMF general assembly of 5 June 2026
- •Houssine Kharja biographical record for date and place of birth, academy, clubs and caps
Related articles
Related practical guides
Are you an MRE?
Join the platform and reach verified professionals in Morocco. Free.
Have a project in Morocco?
Find a LesMRE-verified expert to guide you through your steps.
Find an expert →