FIFA World Cup hosting decision a huge blow for Africa
The World Cup returns to Africa… oh, wait!
In FIFA’s latest bombshell decision, the world football organising body announced that Morocco, Portugal and Spain won the bid to host the tournament in seven years’ time, while Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay will be honorary hosts for the first three games in celebration of the competition’s 100-year anniversary. Although, according to Infantino, the decision is an attempt to unite the world, there’s a noteworthy concern that despite unification efforts, Africa’s position as a footballing continent has not progressed in any significant way in a century of the tournament’s existence. The year 2002 marked the first occasion when the tournament was hosted in two different countries, with South Korea and Japan getting the privilege of having the competition on their soil. The joint-bid phenomenon was approved again by FIFA when they announced that the 2026 edition will be held in North America, with the United States of America, Canada and Mexico earning the rights to host it on their shores. This trend has gained a lot of traction, as six different countries will be tasked with accommodating the 48 participating nations in 2030, with each host earning automatic qualification to the group stage. Infantino highlighted that the decision was an attempt to unite the world, but there’s a growing controversy surrounding the call. “W hile the world is divided, football and FIFA are uniting,” the FIFA president said on 7 October. “Three days ago, at the FIFA Council, we brought the world together. W e decided unanimously that it would not be the right thing to walk divided into a bidding process for hosting the biggest event on earth, the FIFA men’s W orld Cup, and came with a proposal that brings together on one side the celebration of the 100 years of the W orld Cup in 1930… and then also bringing two continents together to host the W orld Cup in Morocco, Spain and Portugal – united.”
The decision certainly appeases several confederations at once, but there’s a compelling argument that the hosting format does not exclusively benefit Africa, as it will only be the second occasion that W orld Cup games will be held on the continent. The 2010 W orld Cup in South Africa is fondly remembered as one of the greatest spectacles ever witnessed on the continent and many hopefuls will have imagined that the unique experience would once again be relived, but that now comes with a major caveat. On 18 December 2022, FIFA revealed that the final between Argentina and France was watched by 1.5 billion people across the globe, in addition to the 88 966 spectators that were at Qatar’s Lusail Stadium. This certainly points to how massive the tournament has become and the competition itself remains an important event on the calendar every four years.
African pride?
It is certainly a prestigious showcase, but one that eluded Africa for a large part. South America has hosted the W orld Cup five times, while Europe has staged it the most (10 editions) in France, Switzerland, Sweden, England, Spain and Russia, while Italy and Germany have each been given the right to host it twice. In 2026, it will be the fourth time North America has staged it, while Asia has done so twice, with Qatar being the most recent. The 2030 joint-bid pairs Morocco with its European neighbours in a move that will certainly dilute Africa’s pride. Following the Atlas Lions’ historic fourthplace finish in Qatar, there was some frenzy among supporters as some argued that their feat was a victory for the Arab world, suggesting that Africa was secondary in terms of the team’s identity. Morocco manager W alid Regragui had to intervene on the debate to make it clear that their run in the W orld Cup was also for Africa after there were claims that they only represented the Arab world. “I am not here to be a politician. W e want to fly Africa’s flag high just like Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon. W e are here to represent Africa,” the ex-W ydad Casablanca coach said in December 2022.
Given this unfortunate lingering debate, many can expect these conversations to resurface in 2030, when Morocco will be partnering
In 2030, the FIFA World Cup will have been hosted exclusively on Africa soil just once in the 100 years of the iconic showpiece’s existence. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has confirmed that the 2030 World Cup will be staged on three different continents, with games staged across six countries in South America, Europe and Africa. While the event remains monumental on the global stage, there’s a compelling case that 2030 will be a reality check for Africa as a whole, writes Soccer Laduma’s Lukhanyo Mtuta.
up with Spain and Portugal. According to Statista, Spain’s foreign population is dominated by Moroccans, with more than 700 000 of its people living in the European country – the most by any nation. It is arguable that the 2030 tournament will likely not have a deeply African feel to it, and it will not be likened to South Africa in 2010. The festivity of the event will also be disturbed by the expected travelling as it dares to be a logistical nightmare for supporters, who will be forced to fly to different countries to rally behind their teams. FIFA’s unification attempts seem to be only working for the respective confederations, but the attempts to appease everyone is likely to change the most prestigious event in a fundamental way. Some have even argued that the priority for FIFA is to earn more money by pleasing respective confederations.
Will joint-bids become more popular?
It is also clear that Morocco wanted to host the tournament on their own, as in 2018 they presented a bid to host the 2026 W orld Cup but did not receive the votes needed to win. For both the 2006 and 2010 editions, they also submitted bids, but lost out to Germany and South Africa, respectively. This points to their desire to hold the competition on their own, but they have now settled for the next best thing they could get – which is to team up with another country/ies. It is undoubtedly a bad look that Africa has only exclusively staged the event once in 100 years, and a W orld Cup held on three different continents certainly dilutes how the competition is viewed as perhaps a new era beckons. Supporters will now need to have visas for several countries instead of one, and attending games will come with added costs – which could deny a good number of people from following their team’s travels. Moreover, joint-bids are perhaps something spectators in Africa should get used to as CAF has seemingly adopted the trend as well, after they awarded the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations hosting rights to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.