Dispute between Spain and Morocco for the venue of the 2030 World Cup final

The 2030 World Cup appears as another source of friction in the tense relations between Spain and Morocco. The two countries are co-organizers with Portugal of the next World Cup and have been fighting for months to get FIFA, which has not yet designated the final venues, to end up awarding one of its stadiums the final. The Spanish Federation and the Government defend that it should be the Santiago Bernabéu while Morocco is pushing for it to be the Grand Hassan II Stadium in Casablanca, a pharaonic work for 115,000 spectators still under construction.

In this tug of war, Morocco is pressing ahead with its sights set on the FIFA Congress that it will host in March in Rabat and which will decide whether Gianni Infantino remains president. The Moroccan Federation, like the entire African Football Confederation, has publicly given its support and awaits reward.

For this reason, the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), Fouzi Lekja, did not hesitate to affirm this nine that the final will be played in Casablanca. "The province of Benslimán - in the Casablanca region where the stadium is being built - is the one that will have the honor of organizing the 2030 World Cup final. (...) Whoever wants to be in the next government has no other option but to develop the province," he said amid applause and ovation from those present at a rally of the Party for Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) on the outskirts of Rabat, according to the EFE Agency.

Lekja made this statement as a leader of the federation but, above all, as the Deputy Minister of Budget of the Moroccan Government, a position he has held since 2021 on behalf of the PAM, one of the three parties in the coalition government. On September 23, legislative elections will be held in Morocco and Lekjaa is running for re-election as a parliamentarian and the relationship with Spain and the World Cup are in focus.

FIFA will begin to define which will be venues in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, but also in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, in the coming weeks. Spain aspires to have at least eleven venues, which will be evaluated at the end of September and the final decision of the highest body could come before the end of the year or the beginning of 2027.