Morocco has been defeated by a joint-bid from USA, Canada and Mexico for the hosting rights of the 2026 World Cup.
The 2026 vote was taken at the FIFA Congress held in Moscow today and the tournament was awarded to a join North American bid.
The 2026 tournament will be the second to be hosted across more than one country, following South Korea and Japan’s co-hosting of the 2002 edition.
Morocco were considered outsiders in the bidding process and were labelled “high risk” by FIFA because many of their proposed venues needed to be built from scratch.
By contrast, the North American bid already had virtually all of the infrastructure in place and aside from earning a higher rating by the FIFA evaluators, also promised a record profit for the tournament.
Only one round of voting was required at the Congress early this afternoon, with the North American bid receiving 134 votes compared to 65 for Morocco. One vote was cast in favour of neither bid receiving the tournament.
This is the fifth time that Morocco have bid to host the World Cup, and they have fallen short on each occasion. Eagles physically ready for Croatia – Rohr
Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr has stated that the team is battle ready for Saturday’s Group D clash against Croatia at the Kaliningrad Stadium and stated he will make a final decision on the starting line-up on the eve of the game, Completesportsnigeria.com reports.
The three-time African champions will hope to start their campaign on a winning note when they confront the Vatreni here in Kaliningrad on Saturday.
“Now the team is ready. We are physically ready. We have two training sessions today (Wednesday) and we will see the players again,” Rohr stated during his interaction with the media at the team’s base in Essentuki.
“We have a full week in Russia and the players showed good commitment. Technically and tactically we have three days to work on some things.
Rohr benched Ogenyi Onazi in the team’s final build-up game against Czech Republic a week ago with Israel-based midfielder John Ogu now firm favourite to start ahead of The Trabzonspor midfielder.
The likes of Tyronne Ebuehi and Oghenekaro Etebo are also pushing for starting berths in the team having impressed in training but the German is not willing to give out any information on what his line-up will look like for the game.
“We have our team in our heart already but we will wait till the final moment before we give it out,” Rohr declared.
“We spent nine days in Austria, two training sessions everyday.
“This preparation gives us a possibility to see who is fit physically and who needs more time to be ready.”
The Super Eagles will come up against an experienced Croatia side with a number of quality stars like Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Mario Mandzukic, Ivan Perisic and co but the German coach believes his side’s enthusiasm can help them beat the Croats.
“Croatia watched us against England and Czech Republic. The game will be a good one for both teams. It is an important game for the two teams as it is good to start with a win,” Rohr added.
He also spared a thought for the duo of Moses Simon and Carl Ikeme, two members of the team who are be in Russia due to injury and Illness.
“Before we came here, Moses Simon was injured but he is getting better now. He was not able to make the final 23,” he added.
“We have our goalkeeper Carl Ikeme who is always in our mind all the time.
“All the players here are fit. The challenge for us is to work hard without sustaining any injury.”
