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BUSINESS DAY
Friday 4, May 2018
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ANALYSIS
AFRICA’S CHANCE OF HOSTING 2026 WORLD CUP HANGS IN BALANCE …… As Morocco’s $15.8billion 2026 World Cup bid suffers set back ….. FIFA president Infantino goes for highest bidder, favours U.S and Canada ……Trump intensifies bid for U.S Stories by Anthony Nlebem
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s the world of football prepares for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the various heads at FIFA will assemble a day before the kickoff date to decide which nation(s) get the hosting right for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, an event which will see 48 teams take part for the first time ever. The 2026 FIFA World Cup has seen three bids; a combined one by USA and Canada, Mexico and Morocco. Since the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Africa with over 3,178,856 attendance, the opportunity for an African country to stage another World Cup seems to be a mirage as Morocco’s 2026 World Cup bid looks very unlikely to happen, as world governing football body,
FIFA is said to be considering countries that has the strongest financial muscle. The Moroccon government says they are ready to break the bank to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup if the country wins the right to host the football fiesta. Morocco has proposed to spend $15.8 billion on infrastructure, with 14 stadiums if the bid sails through. But FIFA’s task force has found deficiencies in the proposals for the 2026 tournament. In a downbeat conclusion to the visit by the FIFA, inspectors to Morocco’s bid leader acknowledged it had to improve the quality of the submission made to FIFA in March because inadequacies were identified by football’s governing body.
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There will also be closer scrutiny of human rights of the bidders before the vote on June 13 when Morocco is due to be taking on a joint challenge from the United States, Canada and Mexico. The Associated Press revealed that Morocco did not declare its anti-LGBT law to FIFA in the human rights risk assessment included in the bid book. The documents -- along with the North American submission -- will now be scrutinised for any gaps by human rights experts. “That process involves an expert third-party assessment of the robustness of the human rights content of both bids that will directly inform the administration’s own evaluation,” Rachel Davis, who sits on FIFA’s human rights advisory board, told the AP. “We are confident that the process will result in a fair assessment of the human rights situation in all four countries involved in the bids, and a roadmap for how to deal with any deficiencies that FIFA will then require the successful bidder to commit to.” Davis, who is managing director of the Shift human rights organisation, said an evaluation of the human rights in the bidding nations will be included in a report to the FIFA Council, which will also assess the verdict of the evaluation task force. The council can block a bid with low scores from advancing to a vote of up to