Election favorite says Spain should quit as World Cup co-host if Morocco stages the final

Spain shouldn’t co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup if Morocco gets to stage the final, said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative People’s Party leader and favorite to become the next Spanish prime minister after this month’s snap election.

Speaking on the sports TV show El Chiringuito, Feijóo said it is “fair, fitting and unquestionable” that Spain, “a global football power,” hosts the final.

“If it does not host it, Spain should not take part in organizing the World Cup,” Feijóo added, before confirming, in response to a follow-up question, that he would advocate for Spain to withdraw from co-hosting duties if Morocco was awarded the flagship match.

Feijóo noted that the 2030 World Cup was originally a Spanish-Portuguese bid, until Morocco was invited at a later stage. Despite that chronology, Moroccan officials have been pushing vigorously to stage the final, which is the world’s most prestigious sports event.

Rafael Louzán, Spain’s football chief, told POLITICO in June that he was confident either Madrid or Barcelona would host the final, despite Morocco pouring vast amounts of cash into football infrastructure.

Tensions have flared between the two countries in recent months. Spanish political parties this summer accused Morocco of stoking a migrant crisis in Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta, after 80,000 people surged into the city in late July.

A Sigma Dos poll for El Mundo following the Ceuta crisis found that 84.4% of Spaniards opposed Spain continuing to co-host the World Cup with Morocco.

Leftist party Sumar, the Socialists’ junior coalition partner, said this summer that the World Cup “cannot be shared with a country that uses desperate people for its own geostrategic interests.”

The left-wing party tabled a resolution in parliament that far-right Vox backed in an unusual convergence. The text never made it to a vote because parliament was dissolved ahead of the snap election.