World Cup 2030: Not everything is decided yet
Preparations for the 2030 World Cup are gathering pace. Morocco, Spain, and Portugal are facing a major challenge: this joint bid must not be seen as the sum of three bids, but as a single dossier, hence the importance of coordination between the three countries and the multiplication of meetings on several aspects.
To give substance to this experiment, an original architecture for the organization of work between the three players was set up. «Together with our Spanish and Portuguese counterparts, we have set up a tripartite unit, known as the FIFA Business Unit (BU), for each of the three countries», explains Moad Hajji, general coordinator of the Morocco BU for the 2030 World Cup bid. The BU is made up of 5 people, including 3 members of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation and 2 members of the Government. Youssef Belqasmi, Chairman of Sonarges (National stadium construction and management company / Société nationale de réalisation et de gestion des stades) and former Secretary General of the Ministry of National Education and Sports, is also involved in the operation. The same applies to the Ministry of the Budget. The same applies to Spain and Portugal. One thing needs to be made clear: the tripartite BUs deal exclusively with operational matters. This architecture is supported at a higher level by the presidential steering committee, made up of the presidents of the three countries’ soccer federations: Fouzi Lekjaâ, Pedro Rocha (Spain), and Fernando Gomes (Portugal).
In practice, the BUs of the three countries meet every 15 days to discuss all operational matters relating to the preparation of the bid. For Hajji, «it is important to know that we’re still in the bidding process. It’s true that we’re the only ones, but we have a duty to respect the processes put in place by FIFA». The tripartite bid file must be submitted to the International Federation by July 31, 2024 at the latest. Once this deadline has passed, a FIFA Task Force made up of international experts will travel to the site to inspect the bid documents to ensure that they comply with the International Federation’s requirements. These requirements represent over 200 pages of FIFA’s minimum requirements for hosting a World Cup. To get a better idea of these conditions, Moad Hajji gives examples of accommodation requirements. For a 5-star hotel, for example, each room must be at least 27 square meters in size. Today, 5-star hotels with rooms smaller than 27 square meters are not accepted by the International Federation. There are also standards for stadium capacity, media zones, parking lots, and other facilities and the list of FIFA requirements is long. And these are just the minimum requirements.
Knock-out score
In preparing the bid, the International Federation identified 5 chapters, divided into 17 sections, some of which include eliminatory scores. Stadiums, accommodation for teams and referees… these are all crucial points for FIFA. «If you get a knock-out score, you can’t even go to the vote before the FIFA Congress, which will be held in the 4th quarter of 2024», notes the Business Unit general coordinator. The consolation prize lies in the fact that for the Moroccan bid for 2026 (presented in 2018), Morocco had not obtained any knock-out score. And, he adds, there’s no reason why it should.
Score
In any case, in Morocco, BUs work on two levels. Firstly, to develop our capacity to apply. At the same time, we’re working on coordination, say our sources. «The narrative we’re going to tell must not be different, but must continue across a single bid, two continents, and three countries. It must not appear as the sum of several bids. It should be a single bid that is similar in several respects, and that we arrange at each meeting», said the general coordinator for the Moroccan side. «The whole point of expertise is to achieve this very important goal», says Moad Hajji.
The Task Force will then produce an evaluation report, which will be submitted to the FIFA Congress to be held in the last quarter of this year. The Congress will then have to vote on the bid. «As Fouzi Lekjaâ and his two counterparts, the Spanish and Portuguese presidents, pointed out, our aim is to gather as many votes as possible in favor of the bid. In other words, we want to get as close as possible to the 211 member federations of FIFA and obtain a very respectable score», hopes Moad Hajji.
Mohamed CHAOUI
