CASABLANCA: Morocco has pushed its bid to host the 2026 World Cup in the name of Africa despite tough competition from a joint effort by the US, Canada and Mexico.
Two days after officially submitting Morocco’s bid book to FIFA, the head of the bid committee Moulay Hafid Elalamy outlined to the press the country’s readiness and determination to host the game.
“The dice has not been cast ... Morocco has all the chances,” he said.
The North African kingdom has pre-selected 12 cities to host the competition and is proposing 14 stadiums. Casablanca, the economic hub of Morocco, and Marrakesh, its tourist capital, will each have two stadiums, while the others will be spread around the country.
The largest stadium will be in Tangiers and have a 93,000-seat capacity.
The “pillars” of the Moroccan bid are the “time zones,” which are in GMT, that will allow many fans in the regions providing most teams to the contest to watch the games in real time, said Elalamy, who is also Morocco’s minister of industry. He also noted that Morocco offers visa-free entrance to citizens of 70 countries and that the distances between stadiums is relatively short, allowing fans to move freely from one to the other.
Morocco is passionate about football and considers the 2026 World Cup a “national cause.”
An IPSOS survey requested by the Bidding Morocco 2026 committee showed that 97 percent of Moroccans back their country’s bid and 84 percent of them are very interested in football.
“For us football is everywhere, in the countryside, in the cities, with a ball, a piece of cloth,” said Elalamy. Morocco has previously bid for the World Cup in 1994, 1998 and in 2006.
The united US/Canada/Mexico bid has been seen as the front-runner for the expanded 48-team tournament. But anxiety has flickered over the possibility that comments from US President Donald Trump could hurt the bid.
Trump triggered an outcry in January after referring to “s******e countries” when discussing a deal which related to immigrants from Haiti and several African nations.
African votes will account for a substantial bloc in the June 13 election in Moscow which will decide the 2026 hosts.
Morocco ‘has all the chances’ as it steps up bid for 2026 World Cup
Morocco ‘has all the chances’ as it steps up bid for 2026 World Cup
Netflix down for thousands of US users ahead of Mike Tyson and Jake Paul boxing match
- Downdetector reported that the outage primarily impacted users in major metropolitan areas, including New York, Seattle and Los Angeles
The number of users indicating problems was 85,021, by 10:35 p.m. ET (0335 GMT Saturday), according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from various sources.
Downdetector reported that the outage primarily impacted users in major metropolitan areas, including New York, Seattle and Los Angeles, with scattered reports from other regions.
Netflix said it had no immediate comment in response to a request from Reuters.
The platform has faced outages during live or highly anticipated events in the past, with spikes in user traffic often being a contributing factor.
In April last year, it experienced a brief outage during a live stream of the dating reality show Love is Blind, drawing complaints from thousands of users.
Kosovo players walk off in Romania game after ‘Serbia’ chants
Bucharest: A Nations League game between Romania and Kosovo in Bucharest was suspended on Friday in injury time after fans in the crowd shouted “Serbia!.”
The Kosovo players left the pitch after the chants, leading to the game to be paused with the score 0-0.
Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.
Kosovo and Serbia do not play each other in UEFA and FIFA tournaments.
Football’s world governing body opened disciplinary proceedings against Serbia during the 2022 World Cup after the team hung a flag in their changing room depicting Kosovo as part of Serbia.
Kosovo joined FIFA and European confederation UEFA in 2016.
When Romania played in Pristina, they beat Kosovo 3-0.
Ronaldo shines as Portugal rout Poland to reach Nations League last-eight
PORTO, Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Portugal staged a second-half supershow to crush Poland 5-1 and reach the Nations League quarter-finals on Friday.
Portugal join France, Germany, Italy and Spain in the last-eight while Poland’s hopes of going through from Group A1 were ended.
Having struggled to plant a shot on target in the first half, Portugal stepped on the accelerator after the break.
Rafael Leao broke the deadlock in Porto just before the hour mark after starting and finishing the move.
The AC Milan striker raced away and passed to Nuno Mendes whose cross from the left was headed powerfully past Marcin Bulka in the Portugal goal.
Thirteen minutes later, skipper Ronaldo got his name on the scoresheet, converting a penalty after Jakub Kiwior was penalized for a handball in the area.
Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes made it 3-0 in the 80th minute, scoring after a clever run by Vitinha.
Pedro Neto added the fourth three minutes later after Ronaldo’s fine pass which left the Polish defense stranded.
As Polish spirits sank, Ronaldo added his second and Portugal’s fifth in the 87th minute with a spectacular overhead kick before Dominik Marczuk tucked away a consolation goal for the visitors.
Poland had enjoyed the better chances before falling behind but their potency in front of goal was blunted by the absence of record goal-scorer Robert Lewandowski who was sidelined with a back injury.
Moments before Leao’s goal, Portuguese keeper Diogo Costa pulled off a fine save to deny Marczuk having also been alert to deny Nicola Zalewski in the first half.
Portugal’s best chance in the first 45 minutes had fallen to Ronaldo who fired a close-range effort over the bar from close range.
Japanese soccer player Kazuyoshi Miura says he will play next season at age 58
- Miura will turn 58 in February
- He intends to play next season for his fourth-tier Japanese club, Suzuka
TOKYO: Japanese soccer player Kazuyoshi Miura is several generations older than his teammates. His contemporaries retired decades ago. Lionel Messi is 37, and Cristiano Ronaldo is 39 — mere youngsters compared to Miura.
Miura will turn 58 in February, and the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported this week that he intends to play next season for his fourth-tier Japanese club, Suzuka. It will be his 40th season playing in professional soccer.
Miura is widely listed as the oldest active professional soccer player.
Miura scored 55 goals in 89 appearances and was a star with Japan’s national team in the 1990s.
He has played professionally in Brazil, Italy, Croatia, Australia and Portugal. He made his debut in 1986 with Brazilian club Santos, a side made famous by Brazilian star Pelé.
Japan beat Indonesia 4-0 to extend group lead in Asian World Cup qualifying
- Japan tops the group on 13 points with five games remaining in the round.
- Australia, Saudi Arabia and China all have 6 points, followed by Bahrain with five and Indonesia with 3
JAKARTA: Japan defeated Indonesia 4-0 on Friday to move seven points clear at the top of Group C in the third round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
Two goals in each half mean the Samurai Blue stays on course for an eighth successive World Cup appearance.
After a bright start from the home team, the 78,000 fans at a sold-out Gelora Bung Karno Stadium were silenced after 35 minutes as Daichi Kamada broke down the left and sent a cross which defender Justin Hubner put into his own net from close range.
Takumi Minamino then scored from inside the area off Kaoru Mitoma’s pass to extend the lead five minutes before the break.
Hidemasa Motira took advantage of an errant pass from Indonesia’s goalkeeper to make it 3-0 early in the second half and Yukinari Sugawara rounded out the scoring in the 69th minute.
Japan tops the group on 13 points with five games remaining in the round. Australia, Saudi Arabia and China all have six points, followed by Bahrain with five and Indonesia with three.
The top two from each of the three groups will be guaranteed a place at the World Cup, with the third- and fourth-place teams progressing to the next stage.
