{"id":495823,"date":"2026-06-16T16:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495823\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T16:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:24:11","slug":"would-you-pay-twice-the-national-wage-to-see-the-world-cup-some-morocco-fans-are-doing-just-that-morocco-football-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495823\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you pay twice the national wage to see the World Cup? Some Morocco fans are doing just that | Morocco football team"},"content":{"rendered":"

They had come from the United Kingdom and from Dubai. A surprising number had come down from Montreal. They had come from Morocco, of course, from Marrakech and Casablanca, to witness their team take on mighty Brazil. To support Morocco, the administrative, off-again, on-again champions of Africa<\/a>, and semi\u2011finalists at the last World Cup<\/a> in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a good World Cup<\/a> in 2022 and a good African Cup of Nations,\u201d Kamal Ait El Hadj said before the game, lounging in his seat in the New York New Jersey Stadium\u2019s lower bowl. Soon enough, his section would be colored by Morocco\u2019s blood red and splotches of green. \u201cIt was a minimum for me to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ait El Hadj, a 47-year-old who \u201cbuilds villas\u201d in Morocco<\/a>, figured his travel from Marrakech just for this match would set him back $5,000 (\u00a33,700), even though he had a free ticket. He would go home after the game and planned to return for a last\u201116 match \u2013 hopefully featuring Morocco \u2013 which would cost him another\u00a0$5,000.<\/p>\n

Houssam Jeboni, a 33-year-old fish wholesaler, was high up in the second tier. He said it would cost him $6,000 to follow his team through the group stage, from New Jersey through Foxborough and Atlanta, before flying home to Morocco via Miami.<\/p>\n

Salma Sebti, sitting in the second tier behind one of the goals with her husband and daughter, had booked their travel for all three group matches as well. \u201cAnd inshallah, we stay,\u201d she said. They were here because she had a feeling the Atlas Lions required their presence to succeed. Sebti and her family would spend at least $15,000 on this trip, she estimated. They own a gas station in Marrakech.<\/p>\n

We spoke to a dozen or so fans who had traveled from Morocco for the match and none of them reported any problems getting into the US, although some had faced waits in the immigration line as long as three hours. There was also consensus among them that Morocco are the rightful African\u00a0champions.<\/p>\n

Morocco fans watch their side draw with Brazil. Photograph: Brad Smith\/ISI Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But from those who managed to make it from Morocco to the Meadowlands on Saturday, a clear picture emerged of just who gets to witness this World Cup, of who can decide it\u2019s \u201ca minimum\u201d for them, as it was for Ait El Hadj. After all, the average annual salary in Morocco is estimated to be less than $7,400<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Morocco is a rising power in the global game. The rapidly developing country, which is building impressive infrastructure, has become the power player in African soccer and stands accused of wielding its swelling influence<\/a> to wrest away Senegal\u2019s continental trophy. In four years, Morocco will be the second African country (after South Africa in 2010), and the second Arab one (after Qatar), to host a World Cup<\/a>, when it shares the duties with Spain and Portugal \u2013 and, briefly, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.<\/p>\n

Judging from this random sampling, only Morocco\u2019s well-off are sharing in the soccer spoils. In a\u00a0soccerfootball-mad country like Morocco, as in many others, traveling to this World Cup is a luxury, costing what the average citizen would earn in an entire year or even two.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trust our team and I think this is our year,\u201d said a 32-year-old Morocco fan who works in the travel industry and asked not to be named. He expected to spend up to $10,000 over 10 days. To him, this World Cup represents an appetizer for the one Morocco will co-host. \u201cWe will show the world we are ready to host the best World Cup in history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He shared this abundant pride with Mohammed Smouni, the deputy director general of Morocco\u2019s national railway. \u201cWe\u2019re in training [to host],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Smouni is a World Cup regular, this is his fifth, and did not want to miss this fixture, the only group-stage contest between teams ranked in Fifa\u2019s top 10, which would end 1-1<\/a>. \u201cWe got a taste in Qatar,\u201d he said. He was in the stadium\u2019s\u00a0second tier beside his son, who had come from Montreal to meet him. \u201cSeeing my team has no price.\u201d<\/p>\n

It did have a price, though \u2013 a $1,500 flight. A friend had given Smouni their tickets and was putting them up, making this a relatively affordable trip for him and his son.<\/p>\n

That made Smouni one of the lucky ones. Ait El Hadj, the builder of villas, had saved up for a long time. But then he was lucky, too. \u201cNot everyone can afford it,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men\u2019s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now<\/a>. He teaches at Marist University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They had come from the United Kingdom and from Dubai. A surprising number had come down from Montreal.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-495823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}