Morocco Reportedly Set to Host the 2028 FIFA Futsal World Cup
Morocco is reportedly set to host the 2028 FIFA Futsal World Cup, with Spanish specialist outlet Futsalia reporting on November 12 that FIFA is prepared to back the North African nation as the venue for the 24-team tournament. If confirmed, it would be the first time the Futsal World Cup has ever been staged in Africa.
FIFA has yet to officially name a host for the tournament, which is scheduled for October 7–29, 2028, so for now the reports remain exactly that: reports. But the story has travelled fast, picked up by Moroccan outlets and African football media within a day, and Morocco has been the name most often linked with the tournament ever since it missed out on the 2024 edition.
Why Morocco is the favourite
The case for Morocco is a strong one. The country has hosted the last two editions of the Futsal Africa Cup of Nations in Rabat, in 2024 and again last month, and the Atlas Lions won a record fourth straight African title on home soil in October, beating Angola 5–2 in the final. Morocco also reached the quarter-finals of the last two Futsal World Cups, in Lithuania in 2021 and Uzbekistan in 2024, losing to Brazil on both occasions, and sits sixth in the FIFA world rankings.
Reports have named Rabat, Casablanca and Tangier as the likely host cities, with the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat, the Mohammed V Hall in Casablanca and the Olympic Arena in Tangier among the venues mentioned. Morocco’s recent run as a host nation — the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, the Club World Cup and, jointly with Spain and Portugal, the 2030 football World Cup — only strengthens the bid.
Spain still in the race
The race is not over yet. Spanish newspaper AS reported this week that Spain is also seeking to stage the tournament, having not hosted a Futsal World Cup since 1996. Indonesia, which presented a verbal proposal at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver in April, is also understood to remain in the running, along with other declared candidates including France, Kuwait and Malaysia.
For now, though, the momentum is with Morocco. Futsalia’s report describes an agreement reached behind the scenes, citing exchanges between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Moroccan federation president Fouzi Lekjaa — though until FIFA says so itself, nothing is official.
Confirmation would be a landmark moment for the five-a-side game on the continent: Africa has never hosted a Futsal World Cup since the tournament began in the Netherlands in 1989. It would also hand Morocco’s golden generation — the team that has dominated African futsal for a decade — a home World Cup to chase the title that has twice slipped away in the quarter-finals.
