RABAT, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The team evaluating the two bids for hosting the FIFA 2026 World Cup arrived Monday in Morocco amid Moroccan concerns over "transparency" of the bidding procedure to host this planetary event.
After visiting north America to assess the USA-Canada-Mexico joint bid on April 9-13, the FIFA five-man Task Force will visit between Monday and Thursday four Moroccan cities, namely Marrakech, Agadir, Tangier and Casablanca.
According to FIFA, the main objective of the trips, which will comprise visits to specific locations as well as working meetings with the bid committees, will be to clarify certain technical aspects contained in the respective bid books.
The visits are part and parcel of the overall assessment process implemented by the controversial 2026 Bid Evaluation Task Force.
In a landmark media statement late March, Morocco's bid campaign head Moulay Hafid Elalamy said "it is difficult to enter a race when the referee or judge is not impartial."
Morocco's concerns were also communicated officially to the football's world governing body. In a letter to FIFA presidency, the Moroccan Football Association (FRMF) accused FIFA of introducing late changes to the eligibility criteria for hosting the 2026 World Cup. FRMF president Fouzi Lekjaa said Morocco "cannot accept that FIFA introduced substantial differences at a critical late stage in the proceedings."
Under regulations published by FIFA in March, the Task Force has the power to disqualify a candidate whose proposal does not receive a score of 2 out of 5 grading scale, which corresponds to what FIFA calls "minimum requirements met/sufficient."
"The scoring system adds several new technical criteria," Lekjaa said. "These elements were never conveyed to the FRMF during the preparation of the bid book."
Morocco requested the FIFA president to personally respect the rules and suspend the scoring system "in order to guarantee a just and transparent procedure".
In an indirect response to the Moroccan accusations, FIFA said through a statement to the press that "the scoring system was communicated to the two bidders as soon as approved by the 2026 Bid Evaluation Task Force, which is fully in line with the process determined in the Bidding Registration," adding that the system is aimed at avoiding "unsustainable bids, for instance with the creation of 'white elephants' something FIFA has been heavily criticised for in the past."
Former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter also criticized the newly adopted evaluation process, saying that "you cannot deny one of the candidates (the chance) to go to Congress. This is a principle and I stick to this principle... I was shocked."
The President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Ahmad Ahmad also criticized the bidding process, stating that the FIFA Congress is the only legitimate body to select the venue of the 2026 World Cup.
In an interview with Radio France Internationale, Ahmed deemed the task force as a "step backward."
Morocco vows to spend a total of 15.8 billion U.S. dollars on stadiums and infrastructure if it wins the bid to organize the 2026 World Cup.
This is Morocco's fifth bid to host the World Cup, after their losses for the 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2010 editions of the event.
Morocco enjoys strong support from African and Arab nations as well as wide backing from European countries.
