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FIFA: North American 2026 World Cup Bid Outscores 'high Risk' Morocco by Edyfuzi(m): 10:04am On Jun 02, 2018 |
FIFA judged Morocco's 2026 World Cup
proposals to be "high risk" in three areas
and offered significant praise for the North
American bid, which outscored its rival by a
wide margin in an inspection evaluation
report published on Friday.
The joint bid from the United States, Canada
and Mexico scored 4 out of 5, while Morocco
scored 2.7 following FIFA inspections.
Morocco's risks relate to stadiums,
accommodation and transport. No part of
the North America bid was flagged a high
risk, and FIFA said it "has a clear lead" to
advance the governing body's mission to
"push new boundaries in terms of sports-
related technology and engagement" since
stadiums and hotels already exist.
FIFA's five-man panel could have
disqualified Morocco had the North African
country scored less than two overall, and
less than two on key measures including
stadiums.
The FIFA Council has to approve both
candidates at a June 10 meeting in Moscow.
The final vote of up to 207 member
federations is on June 13 and the inspection
task force scores can be ignored when
making their decision.
The 2026 World Cup is the first tournament
FIFA has confirmed will expand from 32 to
48 teams -- putting increasing demands on
the stadiums and facilities required to stage
80 games.
While Morocco has said it needs to spend
almost $16 billion on infrastructure for the
48-team World Cup, including building or
renovating all 14 stadiums, North America
does not require any tournament-specific
building work.
"The amount of new infrastructure
required for the Morocco 2026 bid to become
reality cannot be overstated," the bid
evaluation task force said. "The Morocco
2026 bid and United 2026 bid represent two
almost opposite ends of the spectrum when
it comes to the nature of their bids."
The North Americans scored the only
maximum 5 mark for its ticketing and
hospitality plans, which helped drive a
forecast revenue for the tournament of $
14.3 billion, "significantly higher" than
Morocco's $7.2 billion.
However, the lowest mark out of 5 for
either bid in each of nine categories is 2.0
for the North American bids' projected
organising costs which were driven up by
having 16 stadiums instead of the minimum
12.
In 20 categories evaluated for risk, the
North American bid had three medium-risk
areas -- government support, human rights
and labor standards, and organizing costs --
and 17 low risk. Morocco had the three
high-risk sections, 10 medium risk -- also
including human rights and labor standards
-- and seven low risk.
Guillermo Cantu, general secretary of the
Mexican football federation, said FIFA's
ratings reflected well on the United bid.
"It's a candidature with very low risk,
practically none," he said. "It is good for us
because it confirms that we have a
responsible candidature, with stadiums
already constructed, base camps operating
and all the communications and lodging
ready and operating. In the next eight years
there will be an improvement in
infrastructure in stadiums in all North
America."
FIFA ordered more rigorous inspections
after criticism of the 2018 and 2022 World
Cup votes in 2010, with a five-man
delegation this time paying the countries
week-long visits in April.
FIFA sent a second group of officials to
Morocco after finding deficiencies in their
bid offering, including the stadiums
proposed. The Associated Press also
revealed that Morocco did not declare its
anti-LGBT law to football's governing body
in the human rights risk assessment
included in the bid book.
"The documents submitted do not
specifically discuss risks to some potentially
affected groups, such as representatives of
the LGBTI+ community," the FIFA report
said. "Also absent from the documents is a
comprehensive methodology to prioritize
risks."
The new batch of technical staff being
deployed from FIFA headquarters to
Morocco did not make a similar follow-up
visit to North America after the task force
inspected the rival bid's facilities this month.
But the North American campaign has been
dogged by questions on the impact of
policies from the Trump administration,
including attempts to implement a ban on
travel by residents of six majority-Muslim
countries. The U.S. has offered fresh
guarantees to FIFA there will be no
discrimination around entry to the United
States at a World Cup in 2026.
"Due to new entry regulations that are
currently being proposed in the United
States in relation to citizens from certain
countries, there are significant risks to
discrimination-free entry to the country,''
FIFA said.
Scores out of 5 (the various categories carry
a different weighting in the overall score):
Overall score: United bid 4.0, Morocco 2.7
Infrastructure
Stadiums: United bid 4.1, Morocco 2.3
Team facilities: United bid 3.7, Morocco 2.9
Accommodation: United bid 3.9, Morocco 2.6
Transport: United bid 4.3, Morocco 2.1
Telecommunications: United bid 4.0,
Morocco 3.5
Fan Festival locations: United bid 3.6,
Morocco 3.2
Commercial
Organising costs: United bid 2.0, Morocco 3.0
Media and marketing: United bid 4.9,
Morocco 4.6
Ticketing and hospitality: United bid 5.0,
Morocco 2.4 |
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