On 8 June the Spanish and Portuguese Football Federations released a Press Statement declaring their intention to start a “thorough process to analyse the possibility of presenting a joint bid.” The statement went on: “Both federations want to take the opportunity to communicate that the governments of both countries are adequately informed about the process, as they will be a fundamental part of their development.”
Prior to this announcement, the Moroccan Football Federation had been involved in discussions with the Spanish and Portuguese on the possibility of a tri-nation bid for hosting the prestigious FIFA competition. Indeed, in a visit to Morroco in 2018 the Spanish Prime Minister – Pedro Sanchez – raised the possibility of a Spanish, Portuguese and Moroccan bid: “We are launching a joint message, which is that this will be a bid between two continents. The King of Morocco is receptive and we’re going to work on it with Portugal. We are very excited about it.”
Despite the initial enthusiasm of the Spanish Prime Minister, Alexander Ceferin – President of UEFA – expressed his hostility towards the prospect of an inter-continent attempt to host the World Cup.
Whether the negative response from Ceferin led to the European countries leaving out Morroco remains to be seen, but given the Moroccan, Federation did not sign the statement it appears the North African nation will not (at the moment) be bidding for the rights to host with its European neighbours.
