With only weeks away from the one-year anniversary of Morocco’s historic advancing to the semi-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the North African kingdom has just officially been appointed as one of the hosts of the 2030 edition of the quadrennial football tournament, per subscription-based sports journalism website The Athletic.
Shared with Spain and Portugal, the tripartite bid was initially made with the promise of organizing a culturally rich World Cup experience that would bring together the essence of African, European, and Iberian traditions. As it turns out, the edition celebrating the competition’s 100 years of existence will also see fixtures be held in South America, making the forthcoming event not only the first to be run across two continents, but three.
On a mission to take the World Cup back to its birthplace, while simultaneously making it land in countries where it has never been, the objective of the Centenary edition is to pay homage to the three nations that first made the dream of organizing such a prestigious global tournament into a tangible reality.
For reminders, Uruguay hosted and won the first-ever edition of the tournament, clinching victory against Argentina in the finals, which legitimizes their participation in the anniversary iteration of the event seven-years from now. As for the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), which was the only federation established at the time, forever headquartered in Paraguay, they were also extended an invitation to cement their involvement in the sport’s history. On the other hand, as the organization committee commemorates three of the competition’s key founding nations, it also intends on making its debut in two others, namely Portugal and Morocco, which have never been able to organize the international sporting event in the past.
After the three first opening games, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, and their respective opponents, will travel to Morocco, Spain, and Portugal, where the remainder of the tournament will take place.
Subsequently becoming the second African and Arab nation to host a World Cup after South Africa in 2010 and Qatar in 2022, only time will tell whether Morocco will beat their historic achievement made in the last edition to hopefully become the first African and Arab nation to reach a final, and who knows, maybe lift the much-coveted trophy.
