Morocco is having a moment as a powerhouse soccer nation, reaching the business end of back-to-back World Cups and seeing a pathway to winning this year’s tournament.

“Morocco has gained everybody’s respect now,” team coach Mohamed Ouahbi told reporters after the squad’s victory over the Netherlands in the first knockout round of the 2026 World Cup. „It’s not because of what we’ve said. We’ve now shown it.”

Morocco has its eyes on staging the 2030 final, as well, already antagonizing its co-hosts in Spain and Portugal in its efforts to claim the next men’s tournament’s showcase match.

Since the country’s historic run to the 2022 World Cup semifinal, Rabat has accelerated spending on stadiums and academies, while positioning itself as Africa’s premier soccer hub. It staged the 2026 African Cup of Nations, which it lost on the field during the final — before a court overturned the result.

A key element of Morocco’s soccer expansionism is the aggressive recruitment of diaspora players with dual nationality, particularly those developed in European academies.

The national team has successfully persuaded stars born or raised in countries such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain to represent Morocco, strengthening its competitiveness while reinforcing ties with Moroccan communities abroad.

At home, Morocco is spending more than a billion dollars on soccer stadiums, irritating some citizens. A wave of protests roiled the country in fall 2025, as a Gen-Z-led movement demonstrated over chronic failings in health care and education — and criticized the investment on soccer arenas. In a sport long dominated by European interests, Moroccan maneuvering has won the world’s attention.

“One of the positives of the World Cup is that every four years you’re reminded that there is incredible talent and ambition and passion for the sport outside of Europe; and for all its faults, one message that FIFA firmly has right is that football belongs to the world, not only Europe,” an official with ties to European soccer leadership, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive political dynamics, told POLITICO.

“Within that, Morocco is a really positive case study — quietly developing on the pitch into being a powerhouse; while gaining influence politically off the pitch. And as we saw during Qatar 2022, they have the most wonderfully passionate fanbase,” the official added.

The next off-field test of how seriously the soccer world takes Morocco’s emergence will come when FIFA has to decide where to place its 2030 final. Soccer’s governing body decided in late 2024 to accept a joint bid from Spain, Portugal and Morocco to host the centenary tournament.

Spain is putting forward two of the sport’s most famous spaces, Camp Nou in Barcelona and the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid. Morocco has one that hasn’t yet been built: A 115,000-capacity Stade Hassan II near Casablanca that soccer officials say will be ready by the end of 2027.

Forrás