Morocco's bid was validated, Friday, by FIFA's task force, making it to the voting phase for the 2026 World Cup. In its report FIFA granted Morocco scores that went from low to high. After granting the Moroccan bid, presented to host the 2026 World Cup, the right to reach the voting phase, FIFA released a report giving details about the Task force's evaluation. «The decision of the Task force confirms the high quality of the Moroccan bid, which meets the new requirements of FIFA. This first recognition highlights the Kingdom's ability to host a 48-team World Cup», says Morocco's bid committee in a statement sent Friday to Yabiladi. 2.7 for Morocco Although Morocco successfully managed to get its bid validated by FIFA's Task force, it has failed to be granted a high score, compared to the North American candidacy. With 5 stadiums in need of renovation and 9 others to be built in the upcoming years, the Kingdom is facing the US-led joint bid that has 17 facilities in hand. And while the United 2026 bid promised to provide forecasted revenues amounting US $ 17 billion, Morocco is presenting only half of that, at US $ 7.2 billion. Scoring 2.7 out of 5, Morocco's performance remains weak in front of the North American one which scored a 4 out of 5 mark. Scoring In details, Morocco scored less than 3 points when it comes to four important criteria namely : stadiums, team and referee facilities, accommodation, ticketing and hospitality and transport. For IT&T and IBC, FIFA fun fest and organizing costs the Kingdom's bid was granted less than 4 points. Morocco's highest score was the one related to media and marketing, 4.6. FIFA's overall risk assessment shows that three of Morocco's propositions were labelled high risk while nine of them were considered to be medium risk including, human rights and labor standards, safety and security as well as health and medical. On the other hand, the North American bid had only three medium risk-ranked criteria. Evaluating the scores, FIFA wrote in its report that «the Morocco 2026 bid is well presented and strong in terms of government commitment, but would need to newly build most of its tournament-related and wider infrastructure». Meanwhile, it praised the North American candidacy, insisting that it «has promising levels of infrastructure already in place and fully-operational». On June the 13th in Russia, the two bids will be subjected to a FIFA vote, where more than 200 football federations will be choosing the candidate to host the 2026 World Cup.
