PARIS: FIFA president Gianni Infantino has offered Morocco to host the FIFA World Cup 2030 final in Casablanca.
According to the report, Infantino has offered the summit clash to the African nation over co-host Spain and Portugal. Morocco is aiming to host the final at the future Hassan II Stadium, which will have a capacity of approximately 115,000 spectators.
The decision comes at a point of political turmoil in FIFA, with Infantino under mounting pressure after his plan for private investments into organising FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup, backfired. After the plan was withdrawn, the Swiss executive has received scathing criticism from UEFA, European leagues and CONCACAF, among others.
Former Portugal great Luis Figo, who had planned to run for the FIFA presidency in 2015 before withdrawing, described Infantino’s behaviour as the “lowest, most deceitful and cravenly self-interested” he had ever seen.
“I could write 10,000 words on the problems at FIFA. But the solution needs only three: Infantino must go,” Figo wrote in a Daily Mail column.
If the plan to host the final actually goes through, it will be a huge blow for Spain, the reigning world champion and one of the co-hosts of the 2030, which has been planning to stage the summit clash at Santiago Bernabeu.
With the presidential elections scheduled during the 2027 FIFA Congress in Rabat, Morocco, in March next year, the latest offer hints at political lobbying by Infantino.
Leading committee members of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), whose vice-president Fouzi Lekjaa is from Morocco, have showed support for Infantino when his chances of re-election face a major threat.
The Football Association of Spain, on the other hand, has been vocal about Infantino’s flawed plan.
“The problem was never a single proposal. The problem is a governance model that concentrates power, reduces checks and balances, and sidelines those directly affected by its decisions,” the Association had earlier said in a statement.
“For all these reasons, we believe Gianni Infantino must not continue at the helm of FIFA. World football needs new leadership that modernises its governance, recovers institutional credibility, and builds future decisions by agreeing them with the involved actors, previously evaluating their sporting, economic, and social impact, rather than imposing them unilaterally.”
