[VIDEO] Morocco wants to host 2026 World Cup

Morocco is doing it for serious: last Friday the African country officially launch its official bid to host the 2026 World Cup. It is not the first time that the Moroccans try to host it: the applications for 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2010 World Cup's editions were all rejected, but for the nomination 2026 Morocco seems to have some more possibilities as the only other competitor is the trio composed by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The digital campaign has already started with a website, three Twitter accounts already active (in Arabic, English, and French), and a very nice and significant video has been released, aimed at spreading an image of an absolutely growing country both from a social and cultural point of view. The official phrase/hashtag of the nomination says a lot about the involvement of all political and non-political forces: "Together for One goal / Ensemble Pour Le Même But".

The 14 candidate venues, some already existing and others to be built, are also listed on the application website. They will be located in twelve different cities: in addition to Casablanca and Marrakech, which will provide two stadiums each, there will also be Rabat, Agadir, El Jadida, Fez, Meknes, Nador, Ouarzazate, Oujda, Tangier and Tetouan. The total amount made available by the government, which also includes infrastructure costs, is around 15 billion euros.

The World Cup edition of 2026 will be the first to see the participation of 48 teams, and for the first time the same federations will choose where they will play: therefore on 13 June in Moscow it will be enough to get 104 votes to get the majority of preferences. In Morocco, they are already convinced to receive support from the 53 African and a lot of Asian states, for what would be the second edition of a World Cup in Africa after South Africa 2010. The Moroccan national team will figure in Russia 2018 after twenty years of absence from a World Cup and could turn out to be an outsider. It is one of the most prosperous generations in its football history, full of interesting youngsters and great interpreters of continental football, almost all born between France and Holland: in addition to the captain Mehdi Benatia, there's Ajax star Hakim Ziyech, but also Achraf Hakimi from Real Madrid, Amin Harit from Schalke and Sofian Boufal from Southampton.