Said Naciri: The Driving Force of Wydad Casablanca’s Success

In 2002, Moroccan club, Wydad Athletic Club De Casablanca won the then CAF winners cup now called CAF Confederations cup against Ghanaian giants, Asante Kotoko but since then, the club went off the scene especially from the continent, international level and even within the local scene they were a bit on and off due to what they term as a poor management by the previous administrations.

From 2003 to 2014, these people had the chance to occupy the hot seat as Presidents respectively but never lived up to the expectations after the club reposed hope in them; Abdelillah El- Manjra(2003-05), Taib El- Fechtali(2005-07) and Abdelillah El- Akram who had a long term but became the fans’ enemy because looking at the number of years he spent as a president in office from (2007-14 ) but managed only one league title, that really angered the fans.

Born in Casablanca, a fan of Wydad with a business background, SAID NACIRI contested for the presidency position in 2014 and won it after sharing with the fans his policies and Ideologies.

He won the elections because his policies really caught the attention of the Wydad fans and they gave him the nod.

His policy is to buy good players with a reasonable amount, use them to win laurels both on the continent and domestic front then sell them to Europe or Asian Clubs to rake in good amount of money and re-invest by building infrastructure.

Even though the club does not have it own stadium but it can rely on a nice ultra modern training centres.

Wydad's board is constituted of President Said Naciri, fan representatives, general manager Carlos Gamondi (ex hassania coach) and Belgian technical director, Paul Put.

Currently, SAID NACIRI'S ideas are yielding results and in the last five years, Wydad Casablanca can boast of 3 Moroccan Botola league titles, 2 runners up in the league, 2 semifinals and 2 finals in the Caf Champios league, winning one of them against Africa's greatest club of all time, Al-Ahly in 2017.

In 2018 Wydad contributed immensely to the success story of the Moroccan local national team, when the country hosted the 2017 edition of the African Nation Championship (CHAN).

Morocco were the eventual winners of the competition with players from Wydad Casablanca playing a huge role in the team. REDA TAGNOUTI, SALADINE EL-SAEED, ISMAIL EL-HADADI, WALID EL-KARTI and currently playing for Zamalek ACHRAF BENCHARKI.

Mohammed Hafiz, a writer for ghanasoccernet.com briefly shared his thought with me on SAID NACIRI.

"Honestly this is what our Ghanaian clubs especially the giants have to learn and do same we need a pure business oriented people like NACIRIs caliber for them to run our Kotoko and Hearts for us so that we can also do well in Africa".

Today Wydad is one of the richest clubs in Africa and to some extent the world because they pay good salaries to players that is the reason player like Hadadi is still playing, Ivorian Centre back Chiekh Comara and Reda Tagnouti Wydad are worth $16,000,000 according to the statistics by the transfermarkt with SAID NACIRI being the architect of such feat.

Dima Wydad.

Article by :SHEPHIC SHERIFF SAEED a player for Bekwai Youth Football Academy and a level 100 student of University for Development Studies (Tamale campus)