Category: Soccer

Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) President Rafael Louzan has said that Spain will stage the final of the 2030 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Morocco wants to stage the game in Casablanca at the Grand Stade Hassan II, a huge stadium currently under construction north of the city. “Spain has proven its organisational capacity over many years. It will be the leader of the 2030 World Cup and the final of that World Cup will be held here,” Louzan said late on Monday (local time) at an event organised by the Madrid Sports Press Association. Louzan did not say whether the match would be played at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu or Barcelona’s Camp Nou, the two leading candidates. Once completed in late 2028, the new stadium in Morocco is expected to hold 115,000 spectators. Morocco’s Royal Football Federation (FRMF) President Faouzi Lekjaa last year expressed his wish to see a final against Spain in Casablanca. Louzan also alluded to the challenges Morocco faced during its hosting of the last Africa Cup of Nations, including the chaotic scenes during the final between Senegal and Morocco this month. That match, which Senegal won 1-0, was overshadowed by fan disruptions and player protests that temporarily halted play. “Morocco is really undergoing a transformation in every sense, with magnificent stadiums,” Louzan said. “We must recognise what has been done well. But in the Africa Cup of Nations, we have seen scenes that damage the image of world football.” FIFA and the Portuguese and Moroccan football federations have not responded to requests for comment on the final’s location. FIFA told Reuters last year it was premature to decide the venue for the 2030 final, saying the host city for the 2026 World Cup final was revealed only two years before the tournament. World football’s ruling body has the final say on where the match will be played.   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX   Former FIFA President Joins Call for U.S. World Cup Boycott Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter joined a growing call for an international boycott of the World Cup matches scheduled to take place in the U.S. this summer. That would include the 6 matches at Levi’s Stadium.   Blatter’s recommendation comes days after former FIFA reform chairman Mark Pieth suggested to a Swiss newspaper that soccer fans should avoid attending games in U.S. cities in light of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the streets and political unrest. The tournament, beginning in June, is playing out in Mexico, Canada and 11 U.S. locations.   “For the fans, there’s only one piece of advice: stay away from the USA!” Blatter posted on X Monday. “I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup.”   Vice presidents of the German soccer federation Oke Göttlich told a Hamburg news outet last week that it’s time for soccer fans and teams to “seriously consider” not visiting the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s foreign and domestic policies. The President has caused concern in Europe by expressing interest in acquiring the island of Greenland from Denmark and questioning NATO’s value to the U.S.   Many fans of Iran and Haiti’s soccer clubs won’t have the option of seeing their teams play live when the World Cup tournament begins in June due to a travel ban imposed by the Trump administration last summer.   Trump has expressed excitement about the World Cup coming to the U.S. since his first administration helped bring the tournament to North America by teaming up with Canada and Mexico in 2017 to make a winning bid. The President shares a warm relationship with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who presented him with the newly invented FIFA Peace Prize in December after Trump unsuccessfully campaigned to win the Nobel Peace Prize.   He called that trophy “truly one of the great honors of my life.”   Team USA men’s squad begins its longshot campaign to win the World Cup with a June 12 match against Paraguay in Southern California. They’ve never won the tournament. Argentina is the defending champion.   The U.S. women’s team, which will compete for the Women’s World Cup in Brazil in 2027, has won its tournament four times.