The Diplomat
Real Madrid is trying to have the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium chosen as the venue for the final of the 2030 World Football Championship organized jointly by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, but it misses the support of Pedro Sánchez’s Government, according to those around it. of the white entity.
The designation of the field that will host the World Cup final has become a diplomatic issue, because there are many interests at stake, and no support is left over.
A priori, the new Santiago Bernabéu is the favorite to be chosen. The president of FIFA himself, Gianni Infantino, is in favor of the option of the Chamartín stadium, but as El Debate has been warning, the pressure for Morocco to win the final comes not only from the Maghreb country, something that is logical , but also from France.
French President Emmanuel Macron is actively campaigning for the match to be held at the El Mansouri Stadium in Beslimane, a few kilometers from Casablanca. With the support of Macron, King Mohamed VI presents the offer of facilities that will be able to accommodate 115,000 spectators and whose works – with an estimated cost of 500 million euros – will begin in 2025, with the idea of completing them in 2028, just two years before the World Cup event. It is not lost on anyone that Macron’s interest is not gratuitous, due to the economic volume that the project will move and the business opportunities that arise for French companies.
The Santiago Bernabéu, once its renovation is completed, will have a capacity of 83,000 spectators, above the 80,000 required by FIFA for the final, and is almost finished. As Portugal does not have such large fields, nor does it plan to expand those of Benfica or Porto, the dispute is a matter of two, with the difference that while the Moroccan option has active pressure in the diplomatic sphere, that of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium , which Real Madrid advocates does not have, at least publicly, the support of the Government of Spain.
According to the information signed by Tomás González-Martín in El Debate, the passivity of the head of the Spanish Executive is influenced by the desire not to confront either Morocco or the Catalan independentists who support him in the Government. These, mostly ‘culés’, look forward to the World Cup final at the Nou Camp and, rather than seeing how it is celebrated in the capital of Spain, they prefer it to take place in the Maghreb country.
