The Tunisian Sfaxien was not crossing his administrative crisis at the beginning of the year 2024, by electing businessman Abdulaziz Al -Makhloufi as a new president, after years of temporary management, until the administrative crisis prevailed over him again with the rise of a business drainage body to take over the administrative affairs until the end of the current season.
Sfaxien is witnessing the pattern of most football clubs in Tunisia, administrative crises and stifling financial difficulties, which prompted officials to refrain from assuming the responsibility of the presidency or even running for the elections, so that the temporary councils continue to manage these clubs in a way that almost includes the professional league clubs.
The Sfaxien club is an example of the difficult administrative and financial conditions in which football is experiencing in Tunisia, as more than half of the professional league clubs live almost an administrative vacuum by resigning the heads of the boards of directors or the presence of a temporary council chairman who undertakes the drainage of business for a few months after an internal recommendation.
In 2022, a temporary board of directors took over the conduct of Sfaxien after the resignation of its fair president, Khamkham, before an electoral public session was held in 2024, according to which Abdulaziz Al -Makhloufi went up to head the team, but his imprisonment after his involvement in administrative corruption cases entered the club in a new administrative crisis.
Related elections and exceptional councils
In recent years, the presidency of football clubs has turned into something similar to the impossible task and the poisoned gift that everyone avoids for fear of the obsession of football and bankruptcy, which has become a threat to it as a result of the decline in revenues and the state abandoning support for sports clubs in exchange for imposing procedures that increase financial difficulties.
At the end of the 2024-2025 season, nearly half of the 16 -year -old Tunisian league clubs live, while it is threatened by the running void, given that most of the boards of directors supervise their administrative wheels are limited in time with one season.
The African clubs, the coastal star, the Sfaxien, the Monastiri Union, the Union of Tataouine, and the Union of Qirdan, are witnessing temporary administrative bodies after the exacerbation of the phenomenon of reluctance to run for the elections to escape the specter of bankruptcy and the exacerbation of debt.
In early May, Sfaxien announced the invitation to a general electoral session for the next two years (2025-2027), on the 31st of the same month, but the deadlines for submitting candidates passed without any election official to advance.
The team, which was established in the year 1928, announced that the expiry of the deadlines and the failure to receive new candidacy files will be either for the continuation of the work of a temporary management body or to open new dates.
The essence of the virgin, the former head of the Sfaxienian runner -up body, believes that “the economic conditions experienced by Tunisian sport and the current laws to run clubs are the first reason behind the reluctance of those responsible for assuming the mission of the presidency or membership of football societies.”
He told Al -Jazeera Net, “Football clubs are experiencing a real management crisis. Perhaps one of the most prominent manifestations is the temporary management for a limited period, without passing the elections, which makes the work of these councils limited to the disposal of business and avoiding the administrative void, no more.”
“The Tunisian Sports Crisis lies in the laws, it is necessary to change the law and make it keeping pace with the developments in the clubs, the way for Tunisian and foreign investors must be opened, similar to what is applied in other countries because the conduct of professional clubs with a financial, administrative and athletic system for amateur It can only produce a state of deficit and a threat of bankruptcy and extinction. “
The spokesman believes that “the authorities are required to change their dealings with the clubs and support them because many of them are under the weight of debts and are no longer able to even provide the expenses of the first football team, so what if the clubs include 3 sports games and hundreds of players in multiple varieties and sports.”
He adds: “The situation inside the clubs is almost a large extent, the coastal star in turn lives for a temporary run, and the African witnesses a collective resignation, while the situation within the rest of the clubs does not seem better with the presence of most clubs under the weight of heavy debts and the penaltying penalties from contracts.”
The Sfaxien club, which includes about 1,200 metaphors in football during the current season, was unable to achieve positive results as it ended the league race in seventh place, while it came out early from the cup race, in what the administrative conditions are still ambiguous and open to all possibilities.
Standed financial resignations and crises
Financial crises and debt exacerbation pushed as a result of the decline in financial revenues and the reluctance of the authorities to retrieve clubs from economic risks, most of the officials, to refuse to provide their candidates to assume administrative responsibilities, either heading these clubs or by taking on various positions within them.
Zubair Pie, the coastal star, the president of the coastal star, officially announced the end of the tasks of the temporary board of directors, who took over his leadership between August 2024 and May 2025, after the consequences of resignations in the team that crowned the Premier League title 11 times.
Zubair Pay, who led the star for a player for more than 10 years, chaired the Business Draining Council to run the club during the season of 2024-2025, after the consequences of resignations began with the withdrawal of Reda Sharaf Al -Din, the elected president, then Othman Jenih and Fahmy Al -Narf, who temporarily run the star.
After the end of the 2024-2025 season, Zubair Bay and the members of the temporary board of directors announced that they would give up their collective positions, justifying their decision in the financial conditions that are crisis within the club.
“My mission has ended in the coastal star, we will not continue the temporary management. I invite businessmen and officials to take responsibility and remove the team from the case of a semi -administrative void,” said Paya in a video clip posted by the club on his account on the communication platforms.
In the African, the country’s second popular club, the crisis seemed more severe with the failure to achieve positive results and the announcement of the running body to a collective resignation after leaving all competitions in the 2024-2025 season.
Heikal Dakhil, the interim president of the African, who took over the mission last June after the resignation of the club’s president, Youssef Al -Alami, resigned to evacuate and and other officials for their positions after disappointing results at the end of the current season.
“We announce our collective resignation with the call for the election of a new board of directors on June 12, with preparedness to submit all financial documents and reports for the period in which we have responsibility,” Dakhil said.
The African Club is considered one of the clubs that lack administrative stability after several officials circulated to the club after the resignation of businessman Salim Al -Riahi from the presidency in November 2017.
The ghost of bankruptcy is overwhelmed by most of the Tunisian Premier League clubs as a result of their inability to pay their debts, which has exacerbated in an unprecedented way in recent years and has become the largest threat to its continuation, as well as the specter of international sanctions that it chases either by preventing contracts or deducting points from its balance.
The financial budgets of the Premier League clubs revealed alarming figures for the financial deficit and the increase in debts that amounted to more than 30 million dinars (about 10 million dollars) for some of them, which makes their participation in African competitions hostage to the salvation of these debts.