World Cup 2022 semi-finalists Morocco have announced that they, alongside Spain and Portugal, presented a joint bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2030.
The bid was announced right after Moroccan King Mohammed VI was, alongside President Paul Kagame, presented with the CAF President’s Outstanding Achievement Awards 2022 in a glamorous ceremony held in Kigali on Tuesday, March 14.
Morocco’s Minister of Education and Sports, Chakib Benmoussa, received the award on behalf of King Mohamed VI.
The announcement on Tuesday raises further doubts over Ukraine’s participation in the bid after Morocco indicated that it will join the European duo in the bid. The African nation’s bid was announced through a statement signed by King Mohammed VI and read by Minister Benmoussa during the CAF Awarding gala in Kigali.
"The Kingdom of Morocco has decided, together with Spain and Portugal, to present a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup,” the statement reads in part.
"This joint bid, which is unprecedented in football history, will bring together Africa and Europe, the northern and the Southern Mediterranean, and the African, Arab and Euro-Mediterranean worlds.”
"It will also bring out the best in all of us, in effect, a combination of genius, creativity, experience and means.”
Morocco committed to taking part in the 2030 bid more than four years ago, immediately after losing the vote for the 2026 tournament. It was in talks with the Iberian nations for a while but had never been officially included in the bid.
Should they succeed this time round, Morocco would be the second African country to host the World Cup in the tournament’s history after South Africa, in 2006.
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Morocco made history in the World Cup 2022, in Qatar, when it became the first African side to reach the semi-finals. They lost to France but eventually finished fourth, behind Croatia.
Lately, in February, Morocco hosted FIFA’s Club World Cup.
The 2030 World Cup hosts are expected to be picked in September 2024.
The co-hosting bids from South America and Europe are the expected favourites.
The inaugural 1930 World Cup host, Uruguay, is part of a centenary bid with Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.
The World Cup has had joint hosts before. In 2002, Japan and South Korea shared the competition. In 2026, the tournament will be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The 2026 World Cup will expand from 32 teams to 48 and, under the format FIFA announced on Tuesday, will stretch to 104 matches, up from 64 in Qatar, in 2022.