World Cup Qualifying in Africa Starts with 7 Teams at ‘Home’ in Morocco During Stadium Upgrade Push 

Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
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World Cup Qualifying in Africa Starts with 7 Teams at ‘Home’ in Morocco During Stadium Upgrade Push 

Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)

When World Cup qualifying starts in Africa on Wednesday, Morocco will be a hub of soccer action a year after the national team's historic run to becoming the continent’s first semifinalist.

Seven teams will play “home” games in Morocco over the next week, but Africa’s standout team will not be among them. Morocco’s first home game in qualifying for the 2026 tournament is in June.

Morocco has several stadiums of international standard — as befits a country preparing to co-host the 2030 World Cup — when much of the rest of Africa has none and needs a temporary home.

A strict policy by the Confederation of African Football since 2021 to drive construction and renovation of higher quality national stadiums has left 17 of 53 teams in action over the next week hosting games on neutral ground, far away from their fans at home.

It is “totally unacceptable,” CAF president Patrice Motsepe has said, that some members do not have a stadium that complies with standards to host international games for national and club teams.

So, Ethiopia opens Wednesday in the western Morocco port city of El Jadida hosting Burkina Faso about 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) from Addis Ababa.

Niger’s team will be about 2,200 kilometers (1,360 miles) from fans back home in Niamey — where it has not played since 2021 — when facing Tanzania at the 45,000-seat Stade de Marrakech on Saturday.

Also welcoming visiting teams in the next week are Egypt, Ivory Coast, Libya, Liberia, South Africa and Tanzania for games that do not involve the host country.

The Gambia team will travel about 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) to go to Tanzania for back-to-back games, first facing Burundi then staying for its own “home” game four days later against Ivory Coast.

“We are committed to ensuring that at least one quality national stadium in every country is built, where none currently exists,” CAF said in its annual report last year, adding the goal of “ensuring that our matches and competition are safe and healthy.”

Even at one of the best new stadiums in Africa — Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon — eight fans died in a crowd crush in January 2022 arriving for an African Cup of Nations game.

The CAF push for improved stadiums also aims to raise standards for players, with better playing and training surfaces, plus fans, sponsors and media.

Such a goal is typically achieved with state support and money in Africa where close ties often bind sports and political influence.

Motsepe, a South African mining magnate, has urged governments and heads of state to invest on visits to more than 30 of CAF's member federations.

“It is not a football problem but an infrastructure issue,” CAF said in a statement Wednesday. “That is why we need governments to partner with football to ensure that countries can play at home.”

Stadium building in Africa often means partnering with China, like the $500 million venue built in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, to host the 2015 African Games.

In Niger, a delegation from the Chinese government met soccer and government officials in April about renovating the state-owned General Seyni Kountche Stadium. Niger has since had a military coup.

In Ethiopia, building a new national stadium in a project with a Chinese state construction firm has reportedly been delayed by rising costs.

FIFA pointed to success stories with its funding programs helping member federations in Liberia and Mauritania develop their stadiums, which are modestly sized rather than a 60,000-capacity project as in other countries.

Liberia’s president is soccer great George Weah, the former AC Milan forward who won the 1995 Ballon d’Or award. Weah is contesting a runoff election this week.

The aim is for more African teams to play true home games when the nine World Cup qualifying groups resume in June. Each group winner will advance to the 2026 tournament being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Already, progress has been made here — a number of countries are now playing at home,” CAF said. “Admittedly, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.”



Marquinhos: PSG Has to 'Do Things Properly' after Another Champions League Loss

Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian defender #05 Marquinhos reacts after Atletico's team scored during the UEFA Champions League, League phase - Matchday 4, football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Atletico Madrid, at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on November 6, 2024. (Photo by Franck FIFE / AFP)
Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian defender #05 Marquinhos reacts after Atletico's team scored during the UEFA Champions League, League phase - Matchday 4, football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Atletico Madrid, at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on November 6, 2024. (Photo by Franck FIFE / AFP)
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Marquinhos: PSG Has to 'Do Things Properly' after Another Champions League Loss

Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian defender #05 Marquinhos reacts after Atletico's team scored during the UEFA Champions League, League phase - Matchday 4, football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Atletico Madrid, at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on November 6, 2024. (Photo by Franck FIFE / AFP)
Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian defender #05 Marquinhos reacts after Atletico's team scored during the UEFA Champions League, League phase - Matchday 4, football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Atletico Madrid, at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on November 6, 2024. (Photo by Franck FIFE / AFP)

Paris Saint-Germain captain Marquinhos lamented the team's inefficiency and inability to “do things properly” after a 2-1 home loss to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday left it last among the four French clubs in the new-look Champions League.
PSG once again entered the competition hopeful of winning it for the first time, but is now 25th out of 36 clubs after only one win in four matches. The bottom 12 are eliminated after eight rounds, The Associated Press reported.
“We are not improving in terms of efficiency,” Marquinhos told Canal Plus television. “Sometimes when we make mistakes in the Champions League we are not punished for it, but when you have top players in the other team then you are (punished)."
With games against Bayern Munich and Manchester City still to come, PSG faces the worrying prospect of failing to qualify for the knockout round. The top eight reach the round of 16 while teams ranked ninth to 24th go into the knockout playoffs.
“You have to tell the truth, if we want to win games then we have to do things properly,” Marquinhos said in French. "I’ve been here 10, 11 years and I know how we get punished on the small details.”
PSG was a Champions League semifinalist last season, and reached the final in 2020.
By comparison, fellow French club Brest had never even played in any European competition before this season and has a much smaller budget.
Yet Monaco is third and Brest is fourth in the Champions League table and both are unbeaten. Lille, meanwhile, has beaten Real Madrid at home, Atletico away and drawn with Juventus.
While they are exceeding expectations, PSG is falling way short.
After PSG midfielder Warren Zaïre-Emery put PSG ahead in the 14th minute, poor defending gifted the Spanish side an equalizer four minutes later, when Nahuel Molina shot into the top-left corner.
Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak made saves from Bradley Barcola, João Neves, and Achraf Hakimi and — following a last-gasp PSG corner — threw the ball all the way up the field.
Veteran forward Antoine Griezmann collected it on the left and picked out Ángel Correa, who scored past goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the third minute of additional time.
“We weren’t in position and they were able to counterattack,” Marquinhos said. “These are things that we need to improve. We have big games coming up and need to get points.”
PSG midfielder Vitinha pointed to missed chances, a recurring theme after the 1-1 draw against PSV last month.
“Small details make the difference and we couldn’t find a way to take the lead," the Portugal international said. “We need to improve how we play and keep a cool head.”
Before the game, PSG's fans in the Auteuil section of the Parc des Princes — which houses the club's ultras — held up a giant banner with the text "Free Palestine."
There was another line underneath in French reading “War on the pitch but peace in the world.”