A day after raising the possibility of Spain pulling out of the 2030 World Cup, LaLiga president Javier Tebas is back on the offensive. This time, he says that “as long as Gianni Infantino remains in office,” the final will be played in Morocco. Two statements in twenty-four hours, both serving the same strategy: drawing the battle between Morocco and Spain over the final into the broader power struggle pitting the FIFA president against part of European football.
“As long as Infantino remains in office, the World Cup final will be played in Morocco,” Javier Tebas said on Wednesday, September 16, at a conference in Huesca, northern Spain, organized by the Association of Executives and Managers of Aragon (ADEA).
Read also : UEFA weighs ending FIFA boycott threat as Infantino faces continued pressure
The LaLiga chief did, however, qualify his assertion with “unless there is a surprise,” before saying he would rather see La Roja win the tournament than Spain host the final: “I’d rather win it than host the final.”
Lekjaa and the Grand Stade Hassan II Targeted Again
To bolster his argument, Javier Tebas returned to Fouzi Lekjaa. The president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), the minister delegate in charge of the budget, and a member of the FIFA Council is, according to Tebas, a “very powerful” man.
Tebas believes that if the Moroccan official has spoken in favor of holding the final in Morocco, “he had a reason” for doing so.
The LaLiga president also referred to the Grand Stade Hassan II, currently under construction in Benslimane and a candidate to host the final. “If Morocco is building the Hassan II stadium, currently under construction in Casablanca, it isn’t for the cricket final,” he quipped.
Progress on construction of the Hassan II Grand Stadium in Benslimane ahead of the 2030 World Cup.
To date, however, FIFA has officially awarded the 2030 World Cup final to neither Morocco nor Spain. What has been decided is that the tournament will be hosted by the three countries, with three centenary matches scheduled to take place in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The venue for the final has yet to be decided.
Two Statements in Twenty-Four Hours
The remarks in Huesca came a day after an earlier broadside that had already drawn considerable attention. On Tuesday, at the World Football Summit in Madrid, Javier Tebas had directly linked Gianni Infantino remaining at the helm of FIFA to Spain’s chances of hosting the final. “With him, Spain’s chances of getting the final are minimal, if not zero,” he said.
He went even further, raising for the first time the possibility of reconsidering Spain’s participation in hosting the tournament. “At the very least, we have to rethink our position regarding the World Cup. I don’t know whether we should pull out or not, but we have to rethink everything we are doing around the World Cup,” the LaLiga president said.
On Wednesday, his message was even more direct. He was no longer merely talking about Spain’s “minimal” chances. He was now presenting a final in Morocco as the consequence of Infantino remaining in office.
Drawing the Final into the Infantino Battle
The repetition is no coincidence. It allows Tebas to gradually introduce the question of the 2030 World Cup final into a much broader conflict currently pitting Gianni Infantino against UEFA’s leadership.
Tensions between UEFA and FIFA have intensified sharply in recent months. They notably concern the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project, which envisaged opening a structure grouping some of FIFA’s commercial assets to private investors.
The project was ultimately withdrawn in late July. UEFA has since kept up the pressure over FIFA’s governance, notably calling for an external and independent review of several issues related to the organization’s operations.
Until now, however, one issue had not featured among the institutional grievances levelled against the FIFA president: the awarding of the 2030 World Cup final. That is precisely the issue Javier Tebas is now seeking to add to the package.
The Final as Leverage
The strategy consists of tying together two issues that had until now remained separate. On the one hand is the challenge to Infantino’s governance and the confrontation between FIFA and UEFA. On the other is the competition between Morocco and Spain to host the final match of the 2030 World Cup.
By repeatedly saying that Infantino remaining in office would lead to the final being held in Morocco, Tebas is turning the choice of host country into an additional argument against the FIFA president.
At this stage, that equation is not backed by any official FIFA decision. The governing body has yet to designate the stadium that will host the final match of the tournament, and there is no public evidence establishing that Infantino remaining in office would automatically result in the Grand Stade Hassan II being selected.
But by repeating the assertion, Tebas is able to turn the final into another source of pressure on Infantino at a time when the FIFA president is already facing challenges over several governance issues.
A Long-Running Feud Between Tebas and Infantino
The LaLiga president did not wait for the 2030 World Cup issue to confront Gianni Infantino head-on. He has long criticized him over the growing number of international competitions, the pressure placed on club calendars and the expansion of the Club World Cup, which he views as competition for domestic leagues.
In July, Tebas accused FIFA of “destroying the football industry” and was already arguing that Infantino’s tenure should come to an end. A few weeks later, he declared that “the Infantino era is over.”
Read also : World Cup final, politics and Infantino—Lekjaa makes his case
On Tuesday, the rhetoric escalated further. The LaLiga president called Infantino “not credible,” adding that it would be “a disgrace” for football if he remained at the head of FIFA. The battle over the final now provides another argument for that offensive.
Sánchez Government Also in the Crosshairs
The Huesca appearance also gave Javier Tebas an opportunity to voice his dissatisfaction with the role given to LaLiga in the organization of the 2030 World Cup. He criticized the absence of the institution he heads from the tournament’s organizational structure, even though LaLiga is involved, he said, in managing access to Spanish stadiums.
Tebas also acknowledged that his relations with the Spanish government “are not good.” “So many things have made no sense in this country in recent years that, unfortunately, nothing surprises us anymore,” he said.
His opposition to Pedro Sánchez’s government is nothing new and comes against the backdrop of political positions the LaLiga president has openly held for years. In his youth, Javier Tebas was active in Fuerza Nueva, a far-right party nostalgic for Francoism, and served as the provincial head of its youth organization in Huesca. In 2019, he also publicly stated his intention to vote for Vox, a party classified on the far right of Spain’s political spectrum.
Two statements in twenty-four hours thus point in the same direction. Javier Tebas is no longer simply advocating for the final to be held in Spain. He is seeking to turn its possible award to Morocco into another item in the case against Gianni Infantino.
