KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Morocco’s 2026 World Cup bid leaders have returned to the attack over conflict of interest concerns ahead of the decisive vote at FIFA Congress in Moscow on June 13.

The Moroccans are competing against a cohosting bid from the United States with Canada and Mexico. They have written again to the world federation setting out their belief that federations from US-controlled territories should be barred from casting a ballot.

The letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his officials from Morocco 2026 quotes clause 4.2 in the bidding regulations which says delegates with a “conflict of interest shall not perform their duties in connection with . . . the voting process of the FIFA Congress.”

The four federations being targeted by Morocco are Guam, Puerto Rico, United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa because “the local inhabitants of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands are U.S. citizens; and the local inhabitants of American Samoa are US nationals.”

FIFA has already shrugged off one approach from the Moroccans over the conflict of interest issue which may not be resolved until FIFA Congress assembles.

This is always assuming that the Moroccan bid is approved as appropriate by the contentious evaluation task force which has visited both bidders to assess the realities of claims in their bid books.

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