The Liberia Football Association (LFA) announced on Thursday that it will not vote for Morocco’s 2026 World Cup bid on June 13. Liberia is the second African nation which has publicly shunned the Moroccan bid, after South Africa.
The
chairman of the Liberia football association, Musa Bility, has said that
his country’s decision was made after talks with former world
footballer and President George Weah and the Liberian government.
The key
factor in supporting the North American bid, according to a statement by
the LFA, is the “long-running traditional relationship between Liberia
and the United States, the many Liberians living in the US and the
impact the World Cup will have on them.”
The LFA president, according to The Cable, added that “Liberia,
a football crazy nation will be bracing to see the World Cup in the
United States as thousands of its citizens living in the country will
have an opportunity to witness live world cup matches from the giant
stadiums in the US.”
Liberia’s decision followed a similar statement from South Africa in May.
It is expected that Liberia, like South Africa, will receive backlash from the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
International
news media speculated that South Africa retracted support for Morocco’s
bid due to pressure from Donald Trump’s infamous tweet about the World
Cup.
Trump wrote in his tweeted that it “would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the US bid.”
Eventually,
South Africa adopted a strong stance against the Moroccan bid, as seen
in South Africa’s Minister of Sports Tokozile Xasa’s statements
published earlier this month. “We are very clear that we cannot support
Morocco,” she said.
South
Africa’s parliament “was very straightforward in this regard, it is the
mandate of the country, and it is an obligation for sporting bodies to
understand what the country’s agenda is.”
Xasa’s
statement retracted South Africa’s initial support for Morocco’s bid
from the president of the South African Football Association back in
April.
Morocco, however, does not seem to be surprised by such decisions.
CEO of
the Moroccan bid Hicham El Amrani told the BBC mid-May that no one is
“forced” to back the Moroccan bid “if he believes that it doesn’t serve
the country or the country’s football interest.”
“Even if
Africa has always acted in unity, unity does not mean 100% of all the
member associations, this is part of the democratic process,” he added.
After
South Africa’s decision, CAF President Ahmad Ahmad reportedly met with
South African officials this month to convince South Africa to vote for
the African bid.
The countdown to the FIFA vote, which is set to take place on June 13 in the presence of 211 football federations, has begun.
Prior to
the vote, the FIFA task force will publish their assessment of the host
candidates’ readiness on May 29 to decide whether the North American
and North African bids are eligible to host the world’s 23rd premier
tournament in 2026.
Source: Moroccos World News
Comments
Post a Comment