Algeria Jumps to the Fore, Morocco Does Not Have a Covered Stadium
The African continent, including the northern countries, still suffers from an important shortage of sports facilities.
The stadiums, for example, in Madrid, the Spanish capital, in which Real Madrid, Atletico and Getafe play, or the London stadiums in which Arsenal, West Ham, Tottenham and Chelsea play, almost outperform all the black continent’s stadiums combined in terms of capacity and quality.
Morocco, which participated several times in the bidding process for hosting the World Cup, and is still hoping to win the organization of the 2030 World Cup despite its chances being almost non-existent, does not yet have a single stadium that can be compared to any stadium in the home of the major leagues, or to the four new stadiums in Algeria, which are either old stadiums, including the Mohammed V stadium, whose construction dates back more than sixty years, and the Rabat stadium, which is half a century old, or impromptu stadiums that were accomplished in the race to embrace the World Cup in the nineties of the last century, including the Tangier stadium, as there is currently no stadium in Morocco with stands that are completely covered, that can give a beautiful picture of the continent, and this may be due to the lack of financial resources.
If we look at the four stadiums that entered the Algerian football dictionary in Douira, Baraki, Oran, and Tizi Ouzou, which can accommodate between forty and fifty thousand seats and are fully covered, we see the vast difference between the two countries, as all the Moroccan stadiums that hosted the Clubs’ World Cup or World Cup finals Africa for the local teams in the previous edition had its stands exposed to a very large percentage, such as the Tangier stadium, which was inaugurated in 2011 and can accommodate 45,000 fans, which only offers covered stands for about 17,000 seats, which is the same as the Marrakech stadium, which also has a capacity of 45,000 seats. Also, the Agadir stadium, which can accommodate 45,000 fans, has a capacity of covered stands not exceeding 3,000 seats and is currently considered the largest stadium in Rabat or Prince Moulay stadium which is the biggest in the Kingdom with a capacity of 52,000, of which only 35% of the stands are covered, and the rest are exposed, and it is an old sports complex dating back to the early eighties of the last millennium.
Even the Mohammed V stadium in Casablanca, which hosts the most famous matches in Morocco, has a capacity of no more than 45,000 fans and is almost completely exposed. As for the stadiums of Fez and Oujda, they are without accreditation at the international level, and they are stadiums that do not differ in their shape from the stadiums of Mascara, Sidi Bel Abbes, Setif and Batna in Algeria.
Moroccans are currently talking about international stadiums on the map only, such as the Casablanca stadium, which can accommodate ninety thousand fans, or covering the Rabat stadium and improvements to other stadiums, which is also something that Algeria can do, with dozens of old stadiums and there is a study to cover the stands of Constantine stadium and raise its capacity to 35,000 fans, and the same applies to the 5th July stadium, in which the number of seats will be close to eighty thousand, through the completion of additional stands in the Al-Mishal area, which will not take more than one year.
Without talking about the four global sports complexes that the President of the Republic announced the launch of the start of their works in 2023 in Constantine, Annaba, Bechar and Ouargla, and the lifting of the freeze on other stadiums, on top of which is the Setif stadium, which means that the equation of facilities and infrastructure has been turned upside down in North Africa, placing Algeria at the front in a short time.