Morocco and roll: dice were stacked against ‘African’ bid

Morocco were always on a hiding to nothing in their bid to become only the second “African” country to stage soccer’s greatest spectacle‚ the Fifa World Cup.

Their 134 votes to 65 loss on Wednesday to the joint US‚ Mexico and Canada bid to host the 2026 tournament was well deserved. Why this was a decisive defeat is not difficult to decipher.

For starters‚ the Moroccans didn’t box clever when they agreed to the rules of engagement. Why did they agree to a Fifa evaluation committee to weigh the infrastructure of the bids as a precursor to the voting? It was always going to work against the “Africans”.

What stopped Morocco from arguing against this evaluation when it was crystal clear that it would influence the process of gauging the state of readiness?

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