What the cameras don't see

Morocco's World Cup ambition reaches far beyond match venues and stadiums ready to welcome teams and fans. It has become a sweeping development project, one designed to redraw the country's map of infrastructure and transport while spreading the benefits across every region of the Kingdom, part of extraordinary preparations to host the 2030 edition.

Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, insists the Kingdom's bid rests on decades of groundwork. That developmental path began in the late 1990s and has now been crowned with the honour of staging the 2030 tournament.

Speaking in comments reported by the Moroccan website "Hespress", Lekjaa described the coming edition as exceptional. It will mark the tournament's centenary, spread across two continents and three countries, with Morocco representing the African continent on this global stage.

The federation president revealed that the specifications document includes 38 sites to host the competing teams. That move breaks from the traditional model, which confines team accommodation to the host cities, and opens the door to a far wider spread of the gains tied to the event.

Lekjaa stressed that the Moroccan vision refuses to limit the World Cup's developmental returns to the six host cities. Instead, it aims to carry the benefit across the broadest possible stretch of the country, ensuring the tournament's effects reach every corner.

He also drew a direct line between the World Cup and a string of major structural projects, above all in infrastructure and rail transport. Chief among them is the extension of the high-speed train line to Marrakesh, with plans to develop the network further and push it towards Agadir.

Morocco, then, is betting on the 2030 World Cup as a turning point in its development story. The legacy will not stop at stadiums and sports facilities. It will reach into transport projects, infrastructure and city development, leaving a mark that long outlasts the competitions themselves.