diff --git a/roles/awstats/tasks/install.yml b/roles/awstats/tasks/install.yml
index df3d4b212..8c0312fae 100644
--- a/roles/awstats/tasks/install.yml
+++ b/roles/awstats/tasks/install.yml
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
     owner: "{{ apache_user }}"
     group: "{{ apache_user }}"
     state: directory
+    recurse: true
     force: true
   with_items:
     - "{{ awstats_data_dir }}"