{"id":621841,"date":"2026-09-11T22:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621841\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:08:11","slug":"2030-world-cup-moroccan-prime-minister-tells-football-chief-to-stop-making-promises-over-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621841\/","title":{"rendered":"2030 World Cup: Moroccan prime minister tells football chief to &#8216;stop making promises&#8217; over final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Morocco&#8217;s prime minister has told the head of the country&#8217;s football federation to stop making promises about the 2030 World Cup final as Spain says they should stage it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The next men&#8217;s World Cup will be co-hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal, although the opening three matches will be played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay to mark the competition&#8217;s 100th anniversary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While a list of host stadiums has been proposed, the line-up has yet to be finalised, as well as where the showpiece will take place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Moroccan football federation (RMFF), declared at a political party event Casablanca would have the &#8216;honour&#8217; of hosting the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fifa, world football&#8217;s governing body and organisers of the World Cup, said &#8220;a decision will be made in due course&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At a rally, Morocco&#8217;s prime minister Aziz Akhannouch also told Lekjaa: &#8220;Do not offer to host the big final game in Morocco while we still have not discussed the matter with our allies, Spain and Portugal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There should be some respect, brothers. Stop using electoral promises to pull the rug out from under us. These are huge matters. Deciding where the final will be held is a major issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rafael Louzan, president of the Spanish football federation (RFEF), has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c24g2914g9vo\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">previously said the final will be held in Spain,<\/a> and felt their claim has been strengthened by winning the men&#8217;s World Cup for the second time this summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Even though no decision has been taken, I believe Spain is the place because it cannot be any other way,&#8221; he told Cadena SER radio station. &#8220;As you know, we are currently world champions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I believe Spain&#8217;s organisational capacity for major events is beyond question and that is why reality dictates that the grand final cannot and must not be held anywhere other than in Spain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Spain beat Argentina to win this year&#8217;s World Cup in July, although New Jersey was not confirmed as the host for the final until February 2024 &#8211; two years before the tournament took place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Morocco are constructing a proposed 115,000-seat stadium, which would make it the largest football stadium in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In Spain, Real Madrid&#8217;s Bernabeu Stadium has recently been renovated and now holds 83,000, while the capacity at Barcelona&#8217;s Spotify Camp Nou will be 105,000 once renovations there are complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morocco&#8217;s prime minister has told the head of the country&#8217;s football federation to stop making promises about the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-621841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}