The venue for the 2030 World Cup final may not be confirmed until 2028, with Morocco and Spain continuing their campaign to host the competition’s showpiece match.
The tournament will be jointly staged by Morocco, Spain and Portugal, but FIFA has yet to choose between three leading candidates: the future Grand Stade Hassan II in Casablanca, the Santiago-Bernabeu in Madrid and Camp Nou in Barcelona.
With four years to go before the World Cup, officials in Morocco and Spain have stepped up their competing claims. Rafael Louzan, president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), said on Wednesday that Spain would seek to secure the final for one of its two leading stadiums.
“We will try to have it in one of the two great stadiums,” he said, adding that the World Cup should finish in Spain.
That position is not shared by FIFA, which has insisted that no decision has been made. When Fouzi Lekjaa said in September that the final would be played in Morocco, football’s world governing body responded that the venue had not been selected and that a decision would be taken “in due time”.
Morocco has a significant proposal of its own in the form of the Grand Stade Hassan II, which is being built in Benslimane, in the Casablanca region. The stadium is expected to hold 115,000 spectators and was designed in part to meet the requirements of a World Cup final.
Morocco also has support from across Africa, including Senegal, during the dispute between the two countries following the Africa Cup of Nations final.
However, a decision appears unlikely to be made soon.
According to Mundo Deportivo, FIFA may wait until 2028 – only two years before the tournament – to formally name the stadium that will host the final.
The Catalan newspaper has pointed to the process for the 2026 World Cup as a precedent. The United States, Canada and Mexico were awarded the tournament in 2018, yet the venue for the final was not confirmed until February 2024.
FIFA eventually selected MetLife Stadium, in the New York-New Jersey region, slightly more than two years before the competition began.
A similar timetable could therefore be followed for 2030. Despite repeated claims in recent weeks from both Morocco and Spain, Casablanca, Madrid and Barcelona all remain in contention. FIFA will make the final decision.