Morocco says it can host 2030 World Cup alone amid Spain final dispute

Moroccan political leader Ilham Belfahili has dismissed Spain’s threat to withdraw from the 2030 World Cup project if Morocco is awarded the final, insisting the country would be capable of staging the tournament by itself.

Belfahili, secretary general of the Union marocaine pour la democratie party, was responding to comments from Spain’s Partido Popular (PP), which has opposed the possibility of the final being played in Morocco rather than Spain.

In an interview with Hespress, Belfahili said the position reflected the “fierce hostility” maintained by the Spanish right towards Morocco since the Ceuta crisis. She argued that Morocco’s opponents seized every opportunity to undermine the country.

“If Spain wants to give up organising the tournament with Portugal, that is its problem,” Belfahili said. She added that such a decision “would change nothing about the reality”, because Morocco could organise the World Cup without either Spain or Portugal if necessary.

Morocco is due to co-host the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal. The country has about 10 stadiums either ready for use, being renovated or under construction, alongside modern infrastructure and experience of staging international competitions.

Those resources, Belfahili argued, would be sufficient for Morocco to host the World Cup independently, even if Portugal also withdrew from the project.

She also criticised what she described as the “mixing of sport and politics”. The use by Spain’s right wing of World Cup promises to win electoral support, she said, was “an isolated electoral escalation that does not concern Morocco”.

The dispute intensified several days ago when Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the PP and a candidate in Spain’s anticipated general election, said he would push for Spain to withdraw if he became prime minister and the final was held at the Grand Stade de Benslimane rather than at Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid.

Feijoo argued that the original proposal had been for Spain and Portugal to host the competition before Ukraine joined the bid and was later replaced by Morocco.

He also claimed the final should go to Spain because the country was the world’s leading football power, citing the victories of its men’s and women’s senior national teams at the World Cup.

Isabel Diaz Ayuso, a fellow PP supporter, used stronger language, accusing Morocco of trying to “steal the World Cup from under their noses”.

That view was criticised by Le360 Sport, which described it as a self-centred perception and recalled in an opinion piece that the tournament did not belong exclusively to Spain.