MUMBAI: Algeria’s Sports Minister Mohamed Hattab has announced that the country is mulling the option of co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup with two of its neighbouring ‘Maghreb’ countries, Morocco and Tunisia and could submit a joint bid with them for its hosting rights, Al Jazeera reports.
The decision comes weeks after Morocco lost out on hosting the 2026 edition of the competition to the USA, Canada and Mexico. Hattab was positive of collaborating with Morocco despite tensions over wrangling political issues such as the Western Sahara region over the years.
“An application from the Maghreb with Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia can be achieved through existing infrastructure as well as future projects,” the minister was quoted as saying to Al Jazeera.
“When we look at our cities, with the sporting and culture facilities present, we are able to consider that we can host major world events.”
Despite losing out on all its five attempts so far of hosting sport’s top marquee event, King Mohammed VI of Morocco hasn’t lost hope yet, which could make the alliance a possibility. In addition to that, Algeria was said to be one of the few nations to have bid in favour of Morocco in its 2026 bid.
However, its football team had failed to qualify for the on-going 2018 tournament in Russia. On the other hand, Morocco and Tunisia were eliminated at the group stage.
If a joint bid from the African nations is confirmed, it is likely to face another tough fight again from the South American trio of Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay bid, which had already expressed its interest 12 months ago to celebrate the World Cup’s 100th anniversary, which was first held in Uruguay in 1930 and historically saw the host nation lift the coveted trophy.
Morocco along with its partners, are expected to work harder on their infrastructure and organizing abilities being up to FIFA standards since the world body’s experts didn’t seem too impressed while evaluating the country for its 2026 bid.
