The Botola Pro (Arabic: البطولة الإحترافيّة, romanized: al-buṭūla l-iḥtirāfiyya) (Tamazight: ⵜⴰⵍⵖⵓⵖⴰ ⵜⴰⵖⴻⵍⵏⴰⵡⵜ ⵜⴰⵙⴰⴷⵓⵔⴰⵏⵜ), is a Moroccan professional league for men's association football clubs.
The competition formed as the FRMF on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Botola Pro to break away from the UNAF, which had been founded in 1911, and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal.
[4] The current champions are Raja CA who won the title in 2023–24 season with an undefeated record, which is a first in the league's history.
The new organisation under the Royal Moroccan Football Federation took place in January 1957, Wydad AC was crowned with the edition of the 1956–57 season, which was its sixth title.
[10][11][12][13] Then in the 1964–1965 season, Maghreb de Fès won its first title, then Wydad AC won the league title in the 1965–1966 season, which is the beginning of the competition between Raja CA and Wydad AC in the tournament, where the derby was repeated due to the public entering the stadium which ended with Raja winning 2–1; But when it was replayed, it ended in a 0–0 draw, and thus Wydad AC won the championship by one point over Raja CA.
[14][15][16] New teams were able to crown the championship title during this period, including RS Settat,[17] Racing de Casablanca,[18] Raja Beni Mellal,[19] MC Oujda,[20] SCC Mohammédia,[21] and others that had previously been crowned as Wydad, who won the league for three consecutive seasons.
Kenitra was able to obtain the championship in the 1973–1972 season in a dramatic way in a season known as the famous case of the Car Dial Fez, where it noticed the survival of Wydad from going down to the second national division due to the cancellation of the interview of Maghreb de Fès with Wydad AC in the last round due to a malfunction in the bus that was carrying the players of Maghreb Fez, which automated a loss for fez and Wydad got 4 points, KAC Kénitra won the league.
This period coincided with the emergence of Raja CA on the scene International in the African Champions League and Club World Cup.
[29] Hassania Agadir managed to win the championship twice in a row, despite the competition from the two poles of the economic capital.
[37] Botola has been ranked in the top 40 world's strongest national league of the decade by International Federation of Football History & Statistics.
During the course of a season (from August to May) each club plays the others twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents', for 30 games.
If there is a tie for the championship, for relegation, or for qualification to other competitions, a play-off match at a neutral venue decides rank.
The third-place team and Coupe du Trône winner qualify to participate in the African Confederation Cup.
[43] In September 2007, the SNRT Group (Al Aoula, 2M TV and Arryadia) paid 225 million dirhams for the rights to broadcast the following three seasons of the Botola.
Hassania Agadir, Olympique Club de Khouribga, Difaâ Hassani El Jadidi and Fath Union Sport are the joint fourth-most participating Moroccan team in the Champions League with Maghreb de Fès — after Raja CA, Wydad AC and AS FAR.