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While New Jersey prepares to host the 2026 World Cup final between Argentina and Spain this Sunday, the venue for the decisive match of the 2030 tournament could spark a significant diplomatic and political contest, Reuters reports.
Morocco, Portugal, and Spain are joint hosts for the 2030 World Cup, but FIFA has yet to determine where the final match will be played.
Spain is confident it will host the title match, but Morocco is already constructing a new $12 million stadium near Casablanca. This facility will boast 115,000 seats, and the African nation hopes it will be the stage for crowning the new world champion. The battle for this prestigious honor is already underway in both sporting and political circles.
The 'Hassan II' stadium is expected to be the largest in football, with construction slated for completion by the end of next year. It will compete with two Spanish stadiums: Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu, which, after extensive renovations completed in late 2024, has a capacity of 83,000, and Barcelona's Camp Nou, currently undergoing renovations to expand its capacity to 105,000 spectators, though construction is behind schedule.
If Casablanca secures the hosting rights, it would mark only the second time a World Cup final has been held in an African city. The first was in Johannesburg in 2010, when Spain claimed its sole World Cup title to date.
During Spain's previous World Cup hosting in 1982, the final was played at the Santiago Bernabéu, where Italy defeated West Germany 3-1.
"Vasil Levski wove the moral, political, and societal aspirations of our people into a strong thread, transforming them into a national ideal," the president stated.
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