Javier Tebas questions FIFA denial over 2030 World Cup final in Morocco

Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, has challenged FIFA’s denial that Morocco will host the 2030 World Cup final, questioning the credibility of the governing body’s statements after comments by Fouzi Lekjaa.

Lekjaa, president of the Moroccan Football Federation, a member of the FIFA Council and Morocco’s minister delegate in charge of the budget, said on Thursday morning that Morocco would stage the final in Casablanca.

FIFA has since described reports that the match will be held in Morocco as “false and misleading”.

Tebas responded in a post on his official X account, writing: “FIFA under Gianni Infantino responds with another denial. Nothing new there – denial has almost become an institutional policy of this version of FIFA.”

He added: “Now it describes the idea of holding the 2030 World Cup final in Morocco as ‘false and misleading’, but there is one small problem: who said it?

“This is not about a journalist or a rumour on social media. It was Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Moroccan Football Federation, a member of the FIFA Council and a minister in the Moroccan government.”

Tebas then questioned which account should be believed.

“Lekjaa says the final will be held in Casablanca, while FIFA says that is not true,” he wrote. “So who is lying? The president of one of the host federations, a member of FIFA’s own council and a government minister? Or should we once again believe the official denial from FIFA, led by Infantino?”

He also suggested FIFA may need to create a new section on its website titled “Current denials”, including the publication date and, more importantly, the date on which each denial expires.

“Because when an institution turns denial into a habit, there comes a point when the problem is no longer what it denies, but who believes it,” Tebas concluded.

The 2030 World Cup will be jointly hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal. The venue for the final has not yet been announced by FIFA, with Morocco and Spain competing to stage the tournament’s showpiece match.

If the final is held in Morocco, it would be only the second World Cup final to take place in Africa, following the 2010 edition in Johannesburg. Spain won that tournament – their only World Cup title at the time – after defeating the Netherlands.

Spain previously hosted the 1982 World Cup final at Santiago Bernabeu, where Italy won the trophy.

Spain won the most recent World Cup, held in the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026, beating Argentina through a goal from Ferran Torres. It was Spain’s second World Cup triumph.