Mahfoud Amara
The 2030 men’s football World Cup will be co-hosted by three countries across two continents after Morocco, Spain and Portugal’s successful bid was selected by Fifa, the sport’s world governing body.
For the north African country of Morocco, this represents a milestone after five unsuccessful bids. It becomes just the second African and second Arab country to host the prestigious tournament – after South Africa in 2010 and Qatar in 2022.
But there’s a bigger picture. The news can be celebrated as a symbol of reconciliation among three historically intertwined countries. After all, the Mediterranean Sea separating Africa (Morocco) from Europe (Spain and Portugal) is a symbol of the tragic crossing of migrants from Africa, many of whom die before reaching the other side.
And there’s an even deeper history to reconcile, going back to the centuries of Arab-Berber-Islamic presence in the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) between
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