By David Gold
October 18 – The Club World Cup, which sees the winners of the European Champions League and the Copa Libertadores compete against teams around the world who have won their respective continental club competitions, is set to be hosted by Morocco in 2013 and 2014, insideworldfootball can reveal.
The deadline expired for bids to stage the events for both years on Saturday night (October 15), and FIFA has confirmed that the North African nation was the sole candidate left in the running for the tournament.
Sport Minister Moncef Belkhayat (pictured) confirmed last week that Morocco was ready to host the competition, and had allocated $40 million (£25 million/€29 million) to do so.
They plan to hold the nine-day tournament in four cities: Casablanca, Tangier, Agadir and Marrakech.
Iran, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa had all been linked with submitting a bid to host the tournaments, but FIFA told insideworldfootball that it was just the Moroccans who remain in the process, and that a formal decision would be reached by the end of the year.
“The deadline for the member associations to deliver their definitive bid, completed, signed, and including the hosting documents expired on Saturday 15 October,” world football’s governing body said.
“Morocco is the remaining member association in the process, and FIFA will now review all the relevant paperwork, before making a decision regarding the hosting of the 2013 and 2014 FIFA Club World Cup competitions in December.”
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