Morocco Faces £17bn Challenge as 2030 World Cup Preparations Gather Pace
Morocco’s elimination at the quarter-final stage by France may have ended the country’s playing ambitions at the 2026 tournament, but officials at the FRMF, the Moroccan football federation, have little time to draw breath. According to The Guardian, preparations for the 2030 World Cup — which Morocco will co-host alongside Spain and Portugal — are pressing on with around 1,400 days until the centenary tournament kicks off.
The scale of investment involved is significant. Morocco has budgeted between £4bn and £4.8bn in direct football spending, while broader infrastructure upgrades — covering transport, airports, railways, urban renewal and digital services — reportedly total around £17bn. An International Monetary Fund assessment found that accelerated expenditure between 2024 and 2030 would amount to the equivalent of 11.9% of Morocco’s 2024 GDP.
The Morocco 2030 Foundation, the country’s tournament preparation body which began work in 2024, has made multiple visits to the United States to study how this year’s tournament was organised. Monthly coordination meetings with Spain and Portugal are ongoing, while FIFA is expected to designate host cities by the end of this year and decide whether to reinstate the traditional local organising committee model after managing 2026 preparations centrally from its Miami office.
One senior official, speaking anonymously to The Guardian, was upbeat about readiness: