Football fans celebrated in the streets in November after Morocco qualified for its first World Cup since 1998, National Daily gathered.
Morocco have promised a “compact” tournament if they are named the host nation for the 2026 World Cup, National Daily learnt.
The North African nation presented its bid book to Fifa on Friday and is the only rival to a joint bid from Canada, Mexico and the United States.
All the host cities are within a 550km radius (342 miles) of Casablanca and a maximum 75 minutes flight time apart,National Daily gathered.
A ‘Legacy Modular Stadium’ concept also means that some of the stadia can be downscaled after the tournament.
The 2026 World Cup will be expanded to feature 48 nations, at least 60% of which will be located within three hours of Morocco’s time zone, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), making the bid more attractive to the European audience and sponsors.
This is Morocco’s fifth attempt to host the World Cup after making bids for the 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2010 finals. The host for the 2026 tournament will be decided in Russia on 13 June.