Morocco's first official response to Saudi Arabia's vote in the 2026 World Cup host
Moroccan sports minister Rachid Talbi al-Alami expressed his regret over Saudi Arabia's vote against his country during the World Cup in 2026, describing him as treason.
In a press statement circulated to some media outlets on Thursday, al-Alami said: "His country deeply regrets the betrayal suffered by some of the Arab brothers on the occasion of the vote on his candidacy to host the 2026 World Cup."
He pointed out that his country is determined to "complete the projects presented in the file of his recent nomination, which was characterized by honest and disciplined competition that respects and respects the values and ethics of football, despite the confusion that was unfortunately presented to him by some Arab friends."
"With instructions from Morocco's King Mohammed VI, Morocco will present its candidacy to host the 2030 World Cup," he added.
The Moroccan sports minister said Qatar's position, expressed by Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, "was during the telephone conversation with the Moroccan monarch earlier in the day."
Mustafa al-Khaliji, the minister in charge of relations with parliament, civil society and the official spokesman of the Moroccan government, regretted the failure of a sister Arab country to vote for Morocco, which lost the organization of the 2026 World Cup in the face of the joint US, Canada and Mexico file.
"Morocco has competed fiercely and adhered to ethical rules," Al-Khaliji said Thursday at a press conference held after the government council in Rabat. "The Kingdom has submitted a file that has managed to overcome many of the conditions that some have expected not to meet."
In this regard, he stressed that "there are royal instructions to submit the candidacy file for the year 2030," noting that "Morocco is designed and will work to complete the projects announced in the nomination file."
At a time when it seemed clear the government praised the efforts made at the level of preparing the file, the official spokesman for the government that "the countries that supported the Moroccan file on the African continent reached 40 countries," stressing that "this must be valued, a balance to Morocco."
Regarding countries that did not support Morocco, the minister said: "This is unfortunate, but we will continue to work because we look to the future."
"The King has supported this file, and Morocco is ready to work in this direction, because the issue is linked to the profitability of bets as we have done before," the official added.
The Moroccan file in the FIFA World Cup 2026 FIFA World Cup hosts received only 65 votes, against 134 in favor of the Canadian-American tripartite file.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq voted in favor of the tripartite file according to the results of the vote announced by FIFA, while the other Arab countries preferred to support the Moroccan file.
Source: Moroccan media
Comments
Post a Comment