The 2030 World Cup-Telecoms: Painstaking technical prerequisites for Morocco

This time will certainly be the right one… In the event that the Moroccan candidacy (with Spain and Portugal) for the organization of the 2030 World Cup is accepted, the country’s economy will have to derive all the direct and indirect benefits from such candidacy (media coverage, communication, investments, infrastructure, financial revenue, and other benefits), but if there is one sector that should serve as fuel and a vector of global connectivity for this big machine, it is indeed telecoms. Indeed, telecoms in particular and IT in general should benefit from unlimited direct and indirect spinoffs, except that the technical prerequisites for the organization of such an event, of international scope, suppose the acceleration from this year onwards of a series of transformative and far-reaching projects.
 These projects include the awarding of 5G licenses to operators from 2024 onwards to prepare for the implementation of the technology in fairly short timeframes, the deployment of next-generation infrastructure in all the regions of the country, the acceleration of broadband and very high speed internet rollout, the generalization of connectivity including in landlocked areas, generalized access to fiber optics, the effective rollout of the increase in voice and data traffic, or even the improvement of penetration rates at the national level. This is what emerges from a recent study, carried out by Sogécapital Gestion, on the potential spinoffs from the organization of the 2030 World Cup by the Ibero-Moroccan trio (Spain, Portugal, Morocco). If ever the option of this joint candidacy, which is both credible and promising, is retained, Morocco will have to make heavy investments in projects related to the extension and improvement of network infrastructure… And above all the acceleration of the establishment and rapid deployment of so-called 5th generation (5G) technology. As a reminder, the Qatar World Cup which was a great success (with 5 billion viewers!) had dedicated 10 years and no less than 20 billion USDs (out of a total of 200 billion USDs) to set up the ultimate ultra telecom infrastructure, with rapid deployment of 5G across the country and antennas around the stadiums. “ And this is a big part of the phenomenal success of the Qatar World Cup. Telecoms are a strong part of the success”, explained Khalid Ziani. In other words, in the case of Morocco, it will now be necessary to put in place the solid foundations and the fundamentals of an operational infrastructure, to implement, and generalize fiber optic links with the use of submarine cables in order to allow a connection without fault with the 5 continents. More importantly, the effective and rapid rollout of 5G is fundamental. Obviously, all the benefits of these investments and the development of telecoms will ultimately inure to Moroccans who will have access to world-class infrastructure, added Ziani. 

FIFA specifications

According to Chapter (3.2.7) of the FIFA specifications, requirements and guarantees inherent in the organization of the FIFA World Cup, “the operations of the FIFA World Cup, and in particular, the related technical solutions must meet the highest international standards and norms”. These stringent requirements must allow “global media transmission and uninterrupted broadcasting of all matches, according to the strictest quality standards in terms of technical means and on all platforms”. The scope of the government guarantee includes precisely the relevant elements of telecommunications, and especially the requirements in terms of infrastructure, IT products and services throughout the preparation, hosting, and running of the competition. The challenge of these technical requirements is to ensure that the (candidate) host country has all the technical guarantees for the organization of the competition, the broadcasting of the matches, and the communication or the connectivity of the supporters and athletes in real time with the whole world. Furthermore, governments (the Moroccan Government in this case) must provide all the guarantees required and obtain the commitments of the third parties concerned. 

Amin RBOUB