Morocco is gearing up for a fierce competition with the US, Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup.
"Morocco today has the necessary infrastructure and potential to host the World Cup," president of the Morocco 2026 World Cup host bid, Moulay Hafid Elalamy has said in statements to reporters recently on the sidelines of the bid submission ceremony.
He stated that the geographical proximity to Africa and Europe, civilization and the fulfilment of the FIFA requirements all qualified his country to host the important sports event.
As part of Morocco's bid, it pledged to invest USD 15.8 billion on construction of new stadiums, improvement of infrastructure to fit the FIFA standards, he pointed out.
Elalamy unveiled that the Moroccan dossier to FIFA comprised 40,000 pages that included details about the four important elements that FIFA had set as the basic criteria for evaluation: stadiums, means of transportation, training spaces and accommodation.
Morocco could mobilize 14 stadiums in 10 different cities, including 12 world-class ones, and assembled pitches, he stated.
Morocco had vied unsuccessfully for the world's biggest football event for four previous times in 1994, 1998, 2006, and 2010.
Rabat, however, hopes the accumulative experience of the four bids would help boost its dossier.
This time, Morocco has an important record of experience and achievements that would favor his candidacy in the face of the joint bid of the United States, Canada and Mexico, Elalamy said.
Officials in charge of the bid also pine high hopes on the expected backing from the Arab world, Africa and many European countries to boost its chances.
He argued that his country's bid represented the African continent and the Arab world, as well as had gained the support of many European Union, Asian and South America countries.
More than 58 African, Arab and European countries had so far backed the Moroccan bid, with the number of supporters expected to rise.
Arab countries has unanimously voiced support for Morocco's bid during the recent Arab summit in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran.
On April 20, the FIFA's technical committee concluded its first visit to Morocco as part of its inspection mission to bidding countries to assess their ability to host the world's largest football event.
A member of the Moroccan World Cup nomination Committee and President of the Moroccan Royal Football Federation Fouzi Lekjaa told reporters at the end of the FIFA team visit that "they has collected technical data about the proposed stadiums to host the World Cup and accommodation services." He noted that the committee had some reservations about some stadiums, the accommodation services and the model of the assembled pitches proposed Morocco.
Morocco, however, vowed to address all FIFA demands and concerns.
FIFA's evaluation committee can disqualify any nomination bid that does not meet the basic criteria.
The decisive vote to choose the host country for the 2026 World Cup will take place on June 13 on the eve of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
A total of 207 FIFA member associations will participate in the voting process, out of 211, as the biding countries are not eligible to vote.
This would be the first time that all FIFA member states partake in world cup host country's choice, not only the members of the Executive Committee as it was the case in the past.
A total of 48 countries instead of 32 would play in the 2026 World Cup.
By Mustafa Al-Merini
