Moroccan media claims that internal divisions and poor management in Spain will hand the 2030 World Cup final to Casablanca over Madrid or Barcelona.
The Moroccan news outlet Rue20 reported that the North African nation's bid to host the tournament's deciding match had grown stronger due to Spanish infighting and massive infrastructure investment by the Moroccan government.
Spain, Portugal and Morocco are set to co-host the 2030 tournament. The final had been widely expected to take place in Spain, with Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu and Barcelona's Spotify Camp Nou considered the frontrunners.
However, Rue20 said the emergence of the Casablanca project had transformed the race into a high-voltage contest, exposing a fragile Spanish unity that was cracking under pressure from the Moroccan kingdom.
The outlet said Spain was facing its own inability to present a united front, pointing to a historical political and economic conflict between Madrid and Catalonia.
It criticised Royal Spanish Football Federation president Rafael Louzan, saying he had refused to take a side between Madrid and Barcelona.
Rue20 said the Casablanca bid had achieved the unthinkable by temporarily uniting the peninsular rivals through the shared fear of losing the biggest match in the world.
Calls for expulsion
The sporting rivalry coincides with political friction between the two countries over immigration.
Spanish parliamentary groups VOX, Sumar and Podemos recently coincided in proposing that Morocco be expelled from the World Cup hosting agreement following a surge of migrants into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta.
The proposal angered the North African nation. Morocco responded by reminding Spain that it had only joined the initial Iberian alliance of Spain and Portugal following a proposal from the Spanish prime minister, and warned of the failure that would result from its expulsion.
Pharaonic project
Rue20 said the strength of the Moroccan position was not accidental, but the result of a unified management strategy and significant financial backing.
The Moroccan government has mobilised 20 billion dollars to improve rail, road, airport and hotel infrastructure ahead of the tournament.
The centrepiece of this investment is the Grand Hassan II Stadium, which is currently under construction on the outskirts of Casablanca.
The venue is scheduled for completion in late 2027 and will have a capacity of 115,000 spectators. The Moroccan outlet noted this would make it the largest stadium in the world, surpassing any venue available in Spain or Portugal, and a natural candidate for the final.
Rue20 described the Moroccan project as pharaonic and unified, transforming what just a few years ago seemed a certainty for Madrid and Barcelona into the great unknown of the 2030 World Cup.
It concluded that Morocco had demonstrated it possessed a plan, the resources and the political will to secure the final.
The outlet said that if Casablanca succeeded in taking the match from the Iberian peninsula, it would be the result of the millimeter execution of a project that has already changed the rules of the game.
