The 2030 World Cup will mark the 100th edition of this major sporting event. On this occasion, King Mohammed VI announced on Tuesday March 14 the candidacy of Morocco, alongside Spain and Portugal, for the organization of the competition. These last two countries had already announced their joint candidacy in 2021, before associating Ukraine with it in 2022. It is finally Morocco which seems to have been selected to complete the trinome.
“I am announcing before your assembly that the Kingdom of Morocco has decided, together with Spain and Portugal, to submit a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup,” the sovereign said, without mentioning Ukraine, in a message read by its Minister of Sports Chakib Benmoussa, on the occasion of the presentation of the 2022 Prize for Excellence of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Kigali.
“A meeting between the Spanish football federation and the Portuguese football federation with the Moroccan federation must be held tomorrow (Wednesday) in Rwanda during the FIFA congress”, simply indicated the Spanish body questioned by AFP, without mention Ukraine. “The presidents will communicate to Kigali any news regarding the bid for the 2030 World Cup,” she added.
Spain and Portugal had already declared their candidacy for the 2030 World Cup in 2021 before integrating Ukraine in October 2022.
At the last World Cup, in December in Qatar, the Moroccan team, the Atlas Lions, signed an exceptional course by reaching the semi-finals of the competition, a historic first for an African team and the Arab world. .
The Football World Cup will celebrate its centenary in 2030, a century after the first edition organized and won by Uruguay, which formalized its joint candidacy with Argentina, Paraguay and Chile for 2030.
Five times unsuccessful candidate for the organization of the competition (in 1994, 1998, 2006, 2010 and 2026), Morocco hopes to become the second country on the continent, after South Africa in 2010, to host one of the events the most important on the planet. In 2018, the country – football fanatic – had already announced that it wanted to apply for the organization of the 2030 World Cup.
FIFA must designate in 2024 the host country or countries of the event, which will host 48 teams, against 32 in Qatar. The Mondial-2026, also with 48 selections, will take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
