"We are ready to host it alone": Fiery Moroccan response to Spain's threats to withdraw from hosting the 2030 World Cup
"Morocco is a country of institutions"
A Moroccan politician has hit back at Spanish threats to pull out of hosting the 2030 World Cup if the final is handed to Morocco.
Morocco, Spain and Portugal will jointly stage the 2030 World Cup, but a major battle has broken out over who hosts the final.
The question of the 2030 final has become a political issue in Spain, with the general elections set for 29 November drawing near. The row has escalated between parties and prominent figures over Spain's right to stage the showpiece.
Spanish opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said he was ready to push his country to withdraw from hosting the 2030 World Cup should FIFA decide to grant Morocco the right to host the final.
Leader of the People's Party, Feijóo went on to say it was self-evident that Spain should host the event.
Ilham Belfhili, the Secretary General of the Moroccan Union for Democracy party, hit back by insisting that hosting the 2030 final was a sporting matter governed by the standards of FIFA and its specialised committees, far removed from the partisan bidding that drives the rhetoric of some Spanish political figures as the early elections approach.
Speaking in special statements to the Moroccan newspaper "Hespress", she stressed that "the Spanish right's orientations towards Morocco's issues are not a thing of the moment, but rather extend back to the events of Ceuta and Melilla in summer 2026, as this current seeks to politicise the files and look for any opening to harm the Kingdom".
Belfhili explained that if FIFA decides to assign the final to the Grand Stadium in Benslimane, and Spain chooses to withdraw, "then that is a matter concerning it alone and changes nothing about the reality".
"Morocco possesses the means and readiness to host the World Cup successfully even if Portugal and Spain withdraw together," she continued.
She also voiced her categorical rejection of "mixing sport with politics", affirming that football is "a universal humanitarian message that brings peoples closer together", and adding that "the Spanish right's exploitation of the World Cup's promises to win voters' votes is an isolated electoral manoeuvre that does not concern Morocco".
Morocco, she stressed, "is a state of institutions that respects the decisions of international bodies whatever they may be".
