The Spanish news agency Efe quoted Fawzi Lakjaa, President of the Moroccan Football Federation, as saying on Thursday that the 2030 World Cup final will be held in Casablanca.
The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has not announced the stadium that will host the final match, in light of the intense competition between Spain and Morocco to host the largest match in the world of the game.
Efe quoted Lakjaa as saying, during a party event in Bouznika, Morocco, today, Thursday: “Ben Slimane Governorate will have the honor of hosting the 2030 World Cup final.”
Ben Slimane is located 60 kilometers from Casablanca, and is the site of the $12 billion Hassan II Stadium, which is currently being built to host the World Cup. Its expected capacity is 115,000 spectators, and it will be the largest football stadium in the world.
Reuters contacted FIFA and the Spanish Football Federation to obtain comment.
The next edition of the World Cup will be an exceptional event, as matches will be held for the first time in six countries across three continents. While the opening three matches will be held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the majority of the tournament's matches will be hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
FIFA has not yet determined all the cities that will host the matches, but both Morocco and Spain want to host the final match.
“Spain should host the final,” Rafael Lauzan, Lakjaa’s counterpart in the Spanish Federation, told local media earlier this month.
In August, FIFA indicated that media reports stating that President Gianni Infantino promised Morocco to host the final match were “false and misleading.”
Although he recently joined French football team Paris Saint-Germain, Ferran Torres is already starting to achieve record numbers.
Torres, who scored the goal that won the Spanish team the World Cup, scored 3 goals (a hat-trick) in the match in which Saint-Germain defeated Slovan Bratislava with a score of 6-1 in the Champions League, yesterday evening (Wednesday).
Torres became the first player in the club's history to score 3 goals in his first Champions League match.
Ferran Torres described his first participation with Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League as being like a dream, expressing his great happiness with the reception he received since joining the club.
“It was an incredible night, like a dream,” Torres said. It was my first match with Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, we won and I scored 3 goals. Seeing these passionate crowds made me wish this day would never end. I am very happy with the reception I received at the club, and how everyone made me feel at home. “I have adapted faster than I expected, and I hope to continue delighting the fans.”
Torres became the first player to score in his first Champions League match with Saint-Germain since Neymar and Kylian Mbappe achieved this feat against Celtic on September 12, 2017.
Saint-Germain strengthened its attacking line by signing Torres, coming from Barcelona on a 5-year contract during the summer.
Torres (26 years old) scored the winning goal for the Spanish national team in stoppage time of the World Cup final against Argentina in July. This was his only goal. He said that those who scored this goal were “47 million people,” referring to the population of Spain.
More of a free-moving striker than a scorer, he scored 65 goals in 207 appearances for Barcelona, including 21 in all competitions last season, his highest goalscoring average of his career.
Torres played for a short time with Saint-Germain striker, Ousmane Dembélé, when the French national team star was playing for Barcelona.
Dembélé scored the first goal for Saint-Germain in the new version of the Champions League against Bratislava, and he also created a goal in each half for Torres.
Torres seems to have adapted quickly in Paris.
He became the second player in Saint-Germain's history to score at least 5 goals in his first 4 matches in all competitions, after Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Dominik Soboslai believes that his partnership in Liverpool's midfield with Argentine Alexis McAllister can achieve long-term success, despite the doubts raised at the beginning of the season about the duo's ability to play the required role.
The Hungarian national team captain participated alongside Mac Allister, who won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, in midfield during the 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid at the start of Liverpool's Champions League campaign at Anfield.
Regarding the possibility of the success of his partnership with McAllister, Suboslay said: “We can, certainly. I've said this many times, I love playing with Maka. We both know each other, and without the need to talk, it is enough for one of us to look at each other to understand what his colleague wants to do, and this helps the team as well.”
British news agency PA Media quoted Suboslai as saying: “The coach is the one who will decide who will play in the upcoming matches, and I think everyone is ready to compete, but we have to become a family.” In the end, we need everyone because the season is long, and we participate in all competitions and we want to continue in all of them until the end.
The match against Atletico was the first since January in which Liverpool conceded a goal and then succeeded in returning and winning, and Suboslai commented on this, saying: “After any setback, it is not easy to return to the match. We saw last season that when we were trailing in a game, we barely created any chances afterwards. But I think the reaction this time was good. We did not panic too much. We maintained the same system and continued to play in the same way. In the end, you get chances thanks to the quality of the players, and because we know each other and know what we have to do.”
He explained: “I think this is the most important thing.” I think things are going well. “We know what the coach wants, and he identifies the players he needs to implement it.”
