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In a letter to the FIFA President Gianni Infantino, head of the Moroccan Royal Football Federation Fouzi Lekjaa denounced the «undisclosed changes» added to the eligibility criteria few hours before the deadline for bid books were submitted last month.
Morocco knew nothing about these changes that could highly affect its bid, said Lekjaa stressing that the additional requirements makes it impossible for the Kingdom to beat the North American joint bid headed by the United States. In an article issued by Le Desk, a source close to the file indicated that «the scoring system set up to evaluate the two bids has been amended to put Morocco off-track and allow the United 2026 (North American bid) to have an easy win».
This was explained by the Lekjaa’s letter which showcases his surprise and indicates that the new «scoring system was only finally transmitted to us on March 14 – 24 hours before Morocco handed in its dossier and 48 hours before the FIFA-imposed deadline».
A new scoring system for Morocco
In an article that sheds light on the FIFA’s last minute bid criteria, Inside World Football thoroughly explains the new changes and their impact on the Moroccan bid. In the new scoring system, made public last week, infrastructure, which includes stadiums, «accounts for 70%» while 30% is «based on projected costs and revenues».
In order to be approved ahead of the vote for June the 13th in Moscow, a bid needs to score a total of 2 points, in a scoring system of 0 to 5. For stadiums, teams and referee facilities, accommodation and transport links bids must score a minimum of 2 points. If a bid fails to score 2 FIFA will terminate its registration, according to the initial requirements set the first day by the body.
However, the new amendments make it harder for Morocco to defeat the North American bid. In fact, FIFA wants that host cities have a population of «at least 250,000, minimum airport capacity of 60 million passengers a year, increased size of fan fests, and a maximum 90-minute distance between airport and host city», said the same source.
Questioning the FIFA's transparency
«In effect, the scoring system adds several new technical criteria which were not part of the original regulations,» said Lekjaa, adding that «these elements were never conveyed to the FRMF (Moroccan FA) during the preparation of the bid book.»
Lekjaa’s letter questions the transparency of the FIFA which stressed through its president earlier this week saying : «I challenge anyone to point out an organization that conducts a bidding process as fair, objective and transparent as the one that FIFA is carrying out for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.»
For the record, Lekjaa was the first Moroccan official to raise questions regarding the FIFA’s way of handling the bids. Last week, Morocco bid chairman Moulay Hafid Elalamy questioned the impartiality of the FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
«It’s very serious if the opinion of a president could change strategic opinions», said Elalamy referring to Infantino’s comments on the North American bid. In a press conference held in Dubai, the FIFA president said that «joint biddings are certainly positive».
«And let me say one more thing, to have Canada, U.S. and Mexico coming together for a joint project, already this is a positive message», he added as reported by AP.
Morocco’s concerns were well perceived by the football international governing body at the time, which stressed in a statement that «the FIFA president will not take part in the vote of the congress and is not involved in the work of the task force who will conduct the technical evaluation».
