The ‘Kingdom of Football’ is printed on the side of Casablanca’s Port train station in Morocco’s biggest city. These are no empty words. Morocco is a huge football country, it’s national team the best in Africa and semi-finalists at the last World Cup finals, it’s derby games creating some of the best atmospheres in world football.
The country is also showing its intent by staging major tournaments. Beyond Casablanca’s outskirts and 30 kilometres to the east, the world’s biggest football stadium, Grand Stade or the ‘Hassan II’ stadium which will seat 115,000, is being constructed.
Morocco hopes it will stage the final of the 2030 World Cup, though Real Madrid’s 84,000 capacity Bernabeu is likely to also be a serious contender. The vast arena, with a tent design for the roof inspired by culturally relevant Moroccan tents, will become a home for local giants Wydad AC and Raja Casablanca. It is scheduled to be completed in 2028 and confidence is high that it will be.
Morocco has become a world leader in stadium construction and several new venues have already been completed for the Africa Cup of Nations currently being staged in the country. The biggest so far is the Tangier Grand Stadium in the northern port city and seats 78,000.
Redeveloped and expanded before being opened as recently as November, it stages Friday’s quarter-final match between Senegal and Mali and then one of the semi-finals. The stands are steep, there’s complete cover, it’s stunning.
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