Patience seems to be a Moroccan virtue. Excluded several times from the race to organize the Football World Cup, most recently for the 2010 edition, awarded to South Africa, the Kingdom has not given up on its sporting ambitions. He even took them up a notch.
His priority: football. Morocco obtained from FIFA the successive organization of the next two Club World Cups, in 2013 and 2014, in Marrakech then Agadir. A privilege previously granted only to Japan and the United Arab Emirates. The following year, the country will host the final phase of the African Cup of Nations. According to Mohamed Naciri, the boss of Kana Production, a national agency specializing in sports events based in Casablanca, these competitions constitute a form of prerequisite for the upcoming hosting of a World Cup. “We’ll get it one day,” he says. There is no rush, because we are patient. But we will have it. And if necessary, we will start by hosting an intermediate World Cup, for under-17s or under-20s, in order to demonstrate to FIFA our ability to organize a global competition. »
In the meantime, the Ministry of Youth and Sports is actively working on a possible candidacy for the 2026 World Cup. A delegation of its representatives, accompanied by leaders and experts from the Moroccan Football Federation, recently made the trip to Brasil. Its mission: to collect as much information and data as possible on the infrastructures of the 2014 World Cup. And, behind the scenes, to convince Brazil to support a Moroccan candidacy.
But the Kingdom's sporting ambitions are not limited to football. Mohamed Naciri confirms: “There is no longer any doubt for us that sport today constitutes a formidable vector of promotion. With the events that have affected the Maghreb in recent years, it has even emerged as one of the rare means of giving the rest of the world a positive image. »
Example: the Marathon des Sables. This stage race (223,8 km) organized over ten days in the desert will celebrate its 5th from April 15 to 2013, 28.rd editing. For the first time, in 1986, only 23 brave people showed up on the starting line. There are now more than a thousand, representing 45 nationalities. His images are now broadcast in nearly a hundred countries.
One man plays a major role in this ambitious sporting strategy: Hicham El Guerrouj. Considered close to Mohamed VI, the current king of Morocco, the former double Olympic champion at the Athens Games (1500 and 5000 m) combines the hats of member of the IOC and the IAAF, of ambassador for the UNICEF and for Peace and Sport, vice-president of the Mohamed VI Foundation of Sports Champions and director of the Tangier athletics meeting. This last competition, organized for the first time in 2008, was canceled last year. This season, unsurprisingly, it finds a place in the calendar.
