French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for the 2030 World Cup final to be held in Morocco rather than in Spain. In doing so, he is calling for the world’s foremost sporting event to be staged on African soil—and he is applying pressure on FIFA President Gianni Infantino to make this happen.
Spain and Morocco–along with Portugal–will host the 2030 World Cup, a bid that will make history because it will mark the first time that this tournament will be held on two different continents simultaneously (three, actually, if the first matches are played in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay as proposed).
Although the locales are now official, there are still many details to be worked out. The location of the championship match is among them.
Spain would like to host it in Madrid’s new Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Portugal is ineligible for the final since it lacks a venue capable of hosting this game, which requires a seating capacity in excess of 80,000. Morocco, on the other hand, is pushing for the most important match of the competition to be held at Casablanca’s state-of-the-art facility.
An unlikely foreign actor has just emerged in this contest, which this time appears friendly. Emmanuel Macron–who by the way exerts considerable influence in the international football arena–wants the final to be held in Morocco and has already begun to exert pressure on FIFA officials (with whom he already has a cordial relationship) to make it happen.
Macron hopes to score some diplomacy points with this maneuver. He utilized football reasoning to do this by pointing out that Spain has already hosted the World Cup final (1982), but Morocco has never done so.
He also mentions that Morocco has been planning to host a World Cup for some years, having filed bids for 1994, 1998, 2006, 2010, 2018, and 2026, and has been working with FIFA on various upgrades. It should be noted that Morocco has hosted the Club World Cup on multiple occasions by default when FIFA simply could not find an alternative.
France believes that another “grand finale” on the African continent would be a nod to the progress of football in North Africa and the Maghreb. Africa already had its World Cup, in South Africa in 2010 (a happy memory for Spain), but it was moved to the opposite side of the continent, as far south as possible from Morocco.
The Government of Spain, which is fiercely advocating for rights to host the final, is aware of Macron’s maneuver, which might actually end up tipping the balance in Morocco’s favor.
Morocco and Spain boast strong partnerships at both the governmental and football federation levels. They displayed it once again last week when they signed a joint candidacy agreement to host the 2030 World Cup alongside Portugal, without specifying the venues.
The French president lends his full support to Morocco, and as part of these maneuvers, he proposes to FIFA that the final be held in Africa–the exact location of which is yet to be determined–and that the two semifinals be held in Spain (one in Madrid and the other in Barcelona).