"Morocco’s concerted focus on grassroots football is beginning to pay handsome dividends after the country’s Under 20 national team secured qualification for next year’s Nations Cup in Mauritania after a 15-year absence," according to the online publication.

The Under 20s qualification comes after the Under 17s already qualified for the Nations Cup competition scheduled for March next year in Morocco, it added, in a story entitled "Morocco's firm focus on grassroots football has lessons for SAFA (South African Football Federation)."

According to The South African media outlet, the seeds of development that the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) has planted are now flowering into full promise.

"Morocco’s futsal team is also producing results, now ranked 21st in the FIFA rankings, and considered the best in Africa. It won the last two African Cup of Nations, including the 2020 home edition in Laayoune," it said.

"The considerable progress is as a result of extensive work done by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation for several years. After a restructuring of the National Technical Directorate, the Federation has set concrete and ambitious goals for each age group, not to mention the clubs from its championship," the publication wrote, quoting FRMF president Fouzi Lekjaa.

And as proof, Lekjaa added, Morocco had four clubs in the semi-finals of the Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup in 2020. A record that demonstrates the good organisation and balance of Botola’s clubs.

The FRMF further pointed out that the Moroccan championship dominates the CAF CLUB rankings with three clubs – Raja, Wydad and Berkane – in the top 10.

"These three clubs – Raja, Wydad, and Berkane, have won four major trophies in Africa in recent years: the Champions League, the CAF Cup (2) and the CAF Super Cup," the publication underlined.

The FRMF has equipped the whole kingdom with high-level infrastructure that allows clubs to provide professional training to players, and to enable national teams to adequately prepare for competitions.

"Apart from the Mohammed VI Football Complex, a jewel of modernity, each regional league (there are 12) has a federal football center and each club will have a training center (like THE FUS and Raja)," "The South African" concluded.