Fundraising event at Athletic Bilbao stadium, to raise money destined to Saharawi refugees suffering of famine through Development NGO PTM – Mundubat. Picture by Western Sahara \/ Flickr.com. Some rights reserved (CC BY-SA 2.0).A day before the first ball is kicked in Moscow to launch World Cup 2018, FIFA members will for the first time vote in public to decide the host of the 2026 tournament. High-ranking football executives at FIFA and the continental confederations\u00a0widely consider\u00a0Morocco\u2019s 2026 World Cup \u2013 once considered a pipe dream \u2013 to be a serious rival to the joint North American bid of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The next two tournaments \u2013 in\u00a0Russia\u00a02018 and\u00a0Qatar\u00a02022 respectively \u2013 have caused controversy for everything from\u00a0human rights abuses\u00a0to Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea and ongoing slaughter of civilians in Syria. This downward trend will continue if Morocco lands the tournament in 2026 despite its occupation of Western Sahara.<\/i><\/p>\n
The territory to Morocco\u2019s south has suffered under more than four decades of colonial rule. Last year, FIFA adopted a \u201chuman rights policy\u201d in a bid to repair its reputation for corruption and indifference to human suffering, but it has a long way to go to demonstrate that it is actually changing its ways. Although FIFA required 2026 bidders to commission and submit an independent human rights report, Morocco has\u00a0denied repeated requests\u00a0from the Associated Press to release it. Morocco\u2019s brutal oppression of the people of Western Sahara is well documented \u2013 Freedom House has Western Sahara at the\u00a0bottom of its \u201cnot free\u201d list\u00a0and human rights\u00a0abuses\u00a0are a\u00a0daily reality. Monitoring groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have\u00a0been banned\u00a0from the territory. Awarding Morocco the World Cup would prolong this injustice by sending a message to Morocco that it can proceed with business as usual.<\/p>\n
In the race to land the tournament, the North American coalition has significant advantages: the lobbying power of three countries, abundant venues, and a proven track record hosting major international sporting events. But Morocco is the better location for\u00a0TV coverage\u00a0in Europe and the Middle East, and its compact geography and single currency sidestep the logistical headaches of its sprawling cross-border rival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the Trump factor. Football officials \u2013 including those from countries derided as \u201cshitholes\u201d by the American president \u2013 may find it hard to resist a vote against the US. That\u2019s particularly important thanks to a change in FIFA voting procedures. Gone is the murky \u201cexecutive committee\u201d selection system. In its place, there will be a\u00a0transparent\u00a0public vote held in June 2018, where all 211 FIFA members \u2013 excluding the four candidates to host \u2013 will have their say. It\u2019s uncharted territory for national federations, many of which will come under political pressure in the face of this new public scrutiny. Many expect the 53 voting African federations to line up behind the Moroccan bid, but it\u2019s far from a foregone conclusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the diplomatic world, Western Sahara is often dismissed as a frozen conflict<\/p>\n
The issue of Western Sahara is divisive on the continent. The African Union, which Morocco\u00a0only rejoined in 2017\u00a0after a 33 year absence, has been responsible for many of the most forthright criticisms of Morocco\u2019s conduct in Western Sahara.\u00a0Official AU documents\u00a0still state that "the African Union considers Western Sahara to be under colonial occupation by Morocco.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the diplomatic world, Western Sahara is often dismissed as a frozen conflict, but international law, countless UN resolutions, and a clear moral imperative are on the side of the people of Western Sahara. Global apathy means the Moroccans see little reason to negotiate in good faith; there is next to no cost imposed for their occupation. Meanwhile, Morocco continues to play an active and visible role on the global stage, hosting events ranging from the UN climate talks in 2016 to the FIFA Club World Cup in 2014.<\/p>\n
Western Sahara is divided by a massive sand \u201cberm\u201d which cuts a swathe through the desert more than 2,000 kilometers long. The wall is manned by tens of thousands of Moroccan troops and densely covered with landmines that have\u00a0killed or maimed\u00a0hundreds of Saharawis. On one side of the berm, Saharawi refugees have lived for more than forty years in refugee camps along the Algerian border. On the other, the Saharawi population lives under the brutal thumb of Moroccan security forces. They are treated worse than second class citizens in their own homeland, denied economic opportunities and\u00a0prevented\u00a0from speaking about the very existence of their country. Brave Saharawi activists\u00a0gather to protest\u00a0these conditions and advocate for their right to self-determination despite the inevitability of a\u00a0violent response.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Morocco has a track record of using football to legitimize its occupation of Western Sahara<\/p>\n
Morocco has a track record of using football to legitimize its occupation of Western Sahara. In 2016, Diego Maradona and other\u00a0former stars\u00a0took part in the ironically named \u201cMatch for Peace.\u201d The exhibition match \u2013 organized by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation \u2013 in the occupied city of El Aauin was held to commemorate Morocco\u2019s 1975 invasion of Western Sahara. Italian club AC Milan also stumbled into the Moroccan propaganda machine last year when it opened a football academy in the city of El Aauin, which the\u00a0club described\u00a0as being part of Morocco.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Disgraced former FIFA President Sepp Blatter\u00a0has endorsed\u00a0the Moroccan bid, tweeting that \u201cit is time for Africa again!\u201d as though awarding the tournament to Morocco would be a victory for the continent. But normalizing the occupation of the\u00a0last colony in Africa\u00a0would be anything but. The world\u2019s greatest sporting spectacle should not be used to perpetuate the profound injustice in Western Sahara.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fundraising event at Athletic Bilbao stadium, to raise money destined to Saharawi refugees suffering of famine through Development NGO PTM – Mundubat. Picture by Western Sahara \/ Flickr.com. Some rights reserved (CC BY-SA 2.0).A day before the first ball is kicked in Moscow to launch World Cup 2018, FIFA members will for the first time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}