South Africa backs Morocco for 2026 World Cup
Monday, 16 April 2018, 19:02
Last update: about 8 years ago
In this Wednesday April 28, 2010 file photo, Danny Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 World Cup Organizing Committee in South Africa, listens during a World Cup soccer news conference in New York. The South African soccer federation has promised Morocco "unqualified support" in its bid to host the 2026 World Cup. The federation says its president, Danny Jordaan, assured Morocco's delegation "he will personally lobby" African officials ahead of the scheduled vote in Moscow on June 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, file)
South African soccer leader Danny Jordaan has promised Morocco "unqualified support" to host the 2026 World Cup in a contest against a combined North American bid.
The South African federation said Monday that Jordaan assured a visiting Morocco bid delegation "he will personally lobby" African officials ahead of the scheduled vote in Moscow on June 13.
Morocco is up against a United States-Canada-Mexico bid to stage the continent's second World Cup. South Africa hosted in 2010, after beating Morocco and Egypt in a vote.
That South African bid is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice for a suspicious $10 million payment to FIFA voters in the North American region. In indictments published by the justice department in 2015, two of the listed "co-conspirators" are South African soccer officials who are not identified.
Now, Morocco is competing against the Americans to co-host the 48-team tournament. Up to 207 FIFA member federations will vote at their congress on the eve of the World Cup in Russia.
North American bid leaders targeted the 14-member southern African soccer body COSAFA at a February meeting in Johannesburg.