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Rabat- French Football Federation (FFF) President Noel Le Graet said on Thursday that money played a big role in the vote against Morocco’s 2026 World Cup bid at the 68th FIFA Congress on Wednesday.
According to Belgian Sport news site RTBF, Graet said that Morocco came face to face with a “beast,” referring to the 2026 World Cup hosting trio (Canada, the US, and Mexico) who won votes from 134 countries against Morocco’s 65.
“When we see little Morocco’s facing a beast made of three united countries, that is not a fair competition in terms of economic capabilities.” He emphasized that almost everyone knew who would win before the FIFA Congress vote.
Graet further stressed that Africa has only hosted the World Cup once, which is not enough: “Africa will get to host the World Cup once again in a hundred years.”
When South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 World Cup against Egypt and Morocco, it became the first African nation to host.
France was the first country to announce support for the Moroccan World Cup bid, and remained true to its word until the end.
Among the 65 countries that voted in Morocco’s favor were Belgium, Algeria, Albania, Turkey, Congo, Egypt, Brazil, and Qatar.
Among the countries that voted against Morocco were Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The Arab countries were severely criticized by Moroccans and other countries, such as Egypt, for “lobbying” against their “brother country.”
Saudi Arabia did not only vote for United 2026 over Morocco, it took advantage of its financial resources to convince other Muslim countries to back the North American bid.
