Morocco joins Spain and Portugal in joint candidacy bid for 2030 World Cup

Morocco has announced its intention of joining Spain and Portugal to launch a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup.

King Mohamed VI of Morocco announced today, Tuesday, March 14, that his country will join Portugal and Spain in a joint bid for the candidacy of the 2030 World Cup tournament.

The news was revealed during the presentation of the Excellence Award for the Confederation of African Football (CAF). His message was read out by Chakib Benmoussa, the Moroccan Minister of Education and Sports. “I announce before your assembly that the Kingdom of Morocco has decided, with Spain and Portugal, to present a joint candidacy to host the 2030 World Cup”, he informed those present.

Details of the agreement are yet to be finalised, as reported by 20minutos.es. What it does mean though is that the previous inclusion of Ukraine in the bid will surely now be cancelled.

Mohammed VI stressed that it will be a candidacy: “unprecedented in the history of football. This common candidacy will be that of the conjunction: between Africa and Europe, between the north and south of the Mediterranean, and between the African, Arab, and Euro-Mediterranean worlds. It will also be a commitment to unite the best of both sides, and the demonstration of an alliance of genius, creativity, experience, and means”.

After a trip to Rabat in November 2018, Pedro Sanchez, the President of the Government, confirmed that he had offered Morocco the possibility of entering the joint candidacy of Spain and Portugal. It was an offer that the African country rejected at that time.

On February 14, the FIFA Council approved the calendar for the election of the 2030 World Cup. The venue will be designated during an extraordinary congress of the organisation in September 2024. Spain, Portugal and Morocco will face stiff competition from a selection of South American countries that make up part of the CONMEBOL federation.

This project is made up of the reigning world champion Argentina, along with Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile. Its strongest point is that 2030 will mark the celebration of the centenary of the first-ever World Cup that was held in Uruguay in 1930.

Until then, FIFA will publish the bidding documents in June 2023. Between September of this year and April 2024, the bid dossiers will be prepared, which will be analysed and evaluated between May and September. FIFA will then decide whether or not Spain will host its second World Cup after the ‘Naranjito’ in 1982.

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