Even though I’m not a die-hard football fan, the thrill in the air in Italy during the World Cup gets me so involved that I organize dinners with friends to watch Italy’s games together. So how could I, a Morocco lover, stay indifferent to the news that the 2030 World Cup will be held not only in Portugal and Spain, but also in Morocco?
Obviously an event of this scale will shake up the country, but it’s just as certain that, in terms of tourism and the economy, the growth opportunities for Morocco will be huge.
FIFA World Cup 2030: Morocco gets ready to host
The news isn’t exactly fresh (FIFA made it official a couple of years ago), yet every time I hear that the 2030 World Cup will be held in Morocco, Spain and Portugal, with three matches in South America between Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay (since 2030 will be the Centenary edition: the first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930), I get a pleasant shiver.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI couldn’t be prouder, but perhaps Moroccans are even prouder, as they’ll take part in an event involving six countries on three continents. After all, sport (and I’d add food, another of Morocco’s great strengths) is, as FIFA president Gianni Infantino put it, what brings people together: “in a divided world, football unites“.
The pride is such that the president of the Moroccan football federation, Fouzi Lekjaa, said that holding (also) in Morocco the 2030 World Cup is a unique opportunity for the country, which brings with it a football tradition and a capacity for innovation that he believes will leave a mark on the future of the competition.
The presidents of the Spanish, Portuguese and Moroccan football federations all agree that this World Cup will be the best edition of the tournament ever. Whether they’re right, we’ll have to wait until 2030 to find out, but in the meantime we can look at the benefits the FIFA World Cup will bring to Morocco.
Tourism on the rise thanks to the World Cup in Morocco
Football is a sport that promotes values of equality, solidarity and healthy competition. But it’s also a field with huge investments. From an economic and tourism point of view, it’s entirely reasonable to expect that hosting the FIFA World Cup 2030 in Morocco will change the future of its cities and people.**
Of course, I’m not the only one who thinks so. In interviews I found online, Moroccan football federation president Fouzi Lekjaa explained that the trust placed in his country reflects the progress made, both in preparing for the event and in the country’s overall development under King Mohammed VI, and that it will help prove what Morocco has always believed: that sport, and football in particular, is a lever for social, economic and human development. He also stressed that it’s the first time this global event will be held in Africa and Europe at the same time.
So Africa and Europe are working together for the social and economic growth of their countries, without neglecting the human factor that underpins their cultures and traditions.
The joint Morocco–Portugal–Spain bid for the 2030 World Cup proved very solid from the start, in terms of sports facilities, accommodation and commercial potential. Morocco has 6 stadiums, Portugal 3 and Spain 11, for a total of 20, well above the minimum of 14 stadiums required for the 2030 World Cup.
For the occasion, though, Morocco is thinking big and wants to leave a lasting legacy, building what is set to be the world’s largest stadium, the Grand Stade Hassan II in Casablanca, with a capacity of 115,000. The investment is almost half a billion euros (5 billion dirhams, to be precise) for a facility built on 100 hectares (about 250 acres) in the municipality of El Mansouria, with work expected to be completed in 2028. In all likelihood the opening match and the final will be played there, and afterwards the stadium will be used by Casablanca’s two historic clubs.
Beyond this, further funds have been allocated (14.5 billion dirhams in total, about 1.3 billion euros) to renovate the six other stadiums in Tangier, Casablanca, Rabat, Agadir, Marrakech and Fez.
So, after South Africa 2010, for the second time in history an African nation will host a World Cup. It’s an incredible opportunity for tourism in Morocco, and hotels and airports are already preparing carefully. New routes will connect the main airports with European cities, as tourist numbers are expected to grow by 2030. The figures could even double, reaching 3–4 million visitors for the World Cup alone, partly because Morocco has invested heavily in the infrastructure of its biggest cities in recent years, as Tourism Minister Fatim-Zahra Ammor pointed out in a recent interview.
The ambitions are big, it’s true, but Morocco will prove worthy of hosting an event that moves billions of euros and millions of people, giving visibility to a country so important to the world’s history and traditions. And it will show just how much cooperation between nations can achieve.
Lisa
