Football News
A host of issues: World Cup focus turns to Morocco with costs and legacy topping agenda
With just over 1,400 days to go until 2030 kicks off, the co-hosts are facing a series of challenges familiar to their South African predecessorsMorocco’s World Cup adventure came to a halt with their quarter-final defeat by France. But taking a break, even for a brief post-season summer, is no option for officials of the FRMF, the country’s football federation.The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), in its newly expanded 16-team format, begins in Rabat on Sunday, a week after the World Cup final in New Jersey, and Morocco then hosts the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in the autumn.The main focus, however, with just over 1,400 days before the start of the centenary 2030 World Cup finals, which Morocco will co-host, mainly with Spain and Portugal, is to ensure that preparations are professionally managed for the second World Cup to take place on African soil.With 50-60 billion Moroccan dirhams (£4bn-£4.8bn) budgeted for direct football investments, and further expenditure for infrastructure upgrades totalling a reported £17bn, the task is herculean. An International Monetary Fund assessment found that accelerated expenditure between 2024 and 2030 would amount to the equivalent of 11.9% of the country’s 2024 GDP.The Morocco 2030 Foundation – the country’s tournament preparation organisation, which started work in 2024 – has spent considerable time in the United States to learn from its organisation of the World Cup.Meetings with Spain and Portugal happen monthly “to align cooperation” and Fifa is expected to designate the host cities at the end of this year and decide whether it will revert to the local organising committee (LOC) model ditched for this year’s tournament because world football’s governing body managed preparations from its Miami office.“The World Cup, for Morocco, is beyond football; it is about developing infrastructure that would be beneficial for the country going forward,” said a leading official who declined to be named. “Our stadiums in Rabat and Tangier are 100% ready.”King Hassan II, who reigned for 38 years and died in July 1999, began the country’s quest to host the World Cup with a failed bid to stage the 1994 tournament. Three subsequent attempts – 2006, 2010 and 2026 – also failed, before Morocco got the 2030 nod, under its current monarch, King Mohammed VI.“Being in my 40s, I bear testimony to all the unsuccessful bids to host the World Cup,” says the journalist Amine El Amri. “Hosting a World Cup is a project that engages every Moroccan in a common dream, knowing that a World Cup comes with a cost, but also with a huge boost to the infrastructure of a very young and very demanding society.”Abderrahim Bourkia, a sports sociologist at the Institute of Sports Science in Settat, does not dismiss the view of those who question the World Cup’s importance to the country. “Others with political positions wonder whether the huge investments should be directed toward education, health, or employment,” he says.“Social status and educational background can shape perceptions too. Public opinion, therefore, remains somewhat ambivalent, reflecting differences in social background, political views, and economic expectations.“Morocco is investing heavily in transport infrastructure, airports, railways, stadiums, urban renewal and digital services. Beyond physical infrastructure, the country is strengthening its institutional capacity to organise mega-events, coordinate policies and improve governance.”Morocco would be well advised to draw on South Africa’s 2010 hosting knowledge. “Our experience shows that ‘success’ lies in planning for legacy, promoting national unity and ensuring infrastructure does not become a burden over the long term,” says Dennis Mumble, a former CEO of the South African Football Association, who was a member of the 2010 World Cup’s LOC.“Some stadiums can become a burden on the fiscus, if not utilised optimally. I don’t believe we built white elephants, but we may not have learned how to position these venues as multi-purpose venues, for concerts of global performers, multi-sports use, church and massive political events.”With many Moroccans apprehensive about the cost of hosting, Mumble tells a cautionary tale about South Africa’s experience. “There were significant cost overruns on the stadium development because the contractors knew the government approved the funds quite late. The result was predatory pricing imposed by contractors who knew we had no choice but to pay whatever they charged.“They were later [criminally] charged and convicted, paying relatively steep fines for this unlawful conduct. Planning to the most minute detail became everything for us.”Morocco is framing its co-hosting of the World Cup as “one with African colours”, but many within the continent’s football community, particularly its sub-Saharan members, are wondering whether, beyond the PR slogans, there will be genuine legacy benefits.Over the past decade, the FRMF has entered into bilateral cooperation agreements with the majority of football federations on the continent. With nearly half of African countries lacking first-rate pitches to stage international matches, forcing them to play official games outside their countries, Moroccan officials say a partnership with the Confederation of African Football to solve this is a part of its World Cup legacy programme.Mumble counsels, based on his experience in the four-year buildup to the 2010 event, that global reputation management will be as big a challenge for Morocco as the nuts-and-bolts preparations, with its political, economic and social issues put under closer media scrutiny.That is something Qatar, the 2022 host, knows a lot about, having had to deal with deeply negative criticism over the deaths of migrant workers and human rights abuses.
