KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- Morocco must scale a steep mountain path in record time if it wishes to make any sort of impression with a bid to host the World Cup in 2026.

An internationally-streamed campaign launch in Casablanca revealed a startling paucity of information and next-to-no sense of excitement about the pursuit of world football’s most prized event.

Both Morocco and its rival, a co-hosting amalgam of the United States, Canada and Mexico, have had precious little time in which to get their acts together. World federation FIFA issued its staging demands only last October and demanded the submission bid books on Friday, a mere five months later.

Morocco . . . chasing the World Cup dream, again

Morocco last bid 15 years ago before being defeated by its  regional confederation cousin from South Africa. Several times bid president Moulay Hafid Elalamy compared the current bid – favourably, of course – with its predecessor.

Elalamy is also Morocco’s Minister for Industry which may offer a clue about the promotional ambitions of the World Cup bid. He said: “The complexity of this bid is a lot more compared with the past.” This was hardly surprising since the 2026 World Cup will be first to feature 48 finalists compared with a mere 32 in 2010.

Contract collection

This, added Elalamy, meant 200 contracts required by FIFA at both national and local level which added up to 40,000 pages in a bid book which had been prepared by a team “made up of 80 experts from across the world.”

One of FIFA’s demands concerned accommodation for fans. Elalamy said: “A city must have hotel capacity of 5,500 rising to 15,000 rooms. Cities may not have enough rooms now but there will be more so that, when the World Cup is finished, there will be legacy aspect.”

Hotels can be built, particularly by a country with a lucrative tourism industry and which may hope to capitalise on a downturn elsewhere in the Arab world amid a rise in Middle East and Gulf tensions.

Stadia are far more complex. Elalamy indicated that Morocco is proposing the Qatar 2022 solution of building at least five modular stadia which can be deconstructed to serve reality’s community demand when the circus has left town.

That apart, Morocco will not alter its development plans just to suit the whims of one corner of the international football community. Elalamy said: “We are not going to transform the strategy of the country to fit the World Cup. But we’ve worked hard to put in place a strategy to integrate the World Cup requirements in line with the strategy of the country.”

Popular appeal

Elalamy quoted a pollster’s ballot reporting that 84pc of the population were interested in football including 75pc of women. A conveniently high number of FIFA member nations were within three hours of Morocco, a happy television coincidence in terms of prime-time broadcasting. Fans of at least 70 countries who wanted the real thing would not need a visa if Morocco won host rights.

Morocco is far behind the US and Co in terms of stadia, infrastructure and readiness. This would not matter so much were it not for the fact that FIFA’s evaluation taskforce visits both countries next month. The comparison will be stark.

The complexity of football politics means the Moroccans can feel assured of mustering of a significant number of votes in congress . . . if they progress that far.

But on present evidence they will do well to even pass the evaluation test which stands between them and the vote in Moscow on June 13.

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