Marca has warned that the latest migration crisis in Ceuta could undermine the trust needed to deliver the 2030 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal.
In four years, stadiums in Madrid, Lisbon, Casablanca and other participating cities are due to stage a tournament that will be played across three continents for the first time. The event is intended to use football to build a bridge between the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar.
However, the Spanish newspaper says the situation in Ceuta has exposed the more difficult side of relations between Morocco and Spain. About 49,000 people crossed from Morocco, in north-west Africa, into the Spanish enclave during the biggest migration crisis to affect the city since 2021.
At least 24 people died while attempting to make the crossing. Authorities responded by strengthening the border fence and deploying Spain’s Civil Guard and army.
Writing in Marca, Gerardo Riquelme described the episode first and foremost as a human tragedy. He also argued that migration flows towards Spain’s North African enclaves do not happen entirely spontaneously, but are heavily influenced by the extent to which Morocco controls its borders.
According to Riquelme, that control has historically been linked to the state of diplomatic relations between Rabat and Madrid.
The 2021 crisis coincided with the arrival of the leader of the Polisario Front at a hospital in Logrono, Spain, where he was being treated for Covid-19 and using a false identity. Morocco has consistently denied that the two events were connected, while attributing the migration flows to human-trafficking networks, Riquelme said.
The issue has particular significance ahead of the 2030 World Cup. Organising a tournament of that scale will require extensive cooperation on security, transport, visas and border controls.
Marca therefore questioned what guarantees underpin the confidence between the three host countries if migration policy can change according to the diplomatic climate.
The newspaper argued that Morocco and Spain need to establish a permanent framework for migration before the tournament begins. Such an arrangement, it said, should not depend on the goodwill of any particular government.
That would be important both to protect people who risk their lives trying to cross the border and to safeguard a World Cup intended to represent unity, the article added.
Spain, meanwhile, should strengthen its cooperation with Morocco, including intelligence-sharing, while maintaining a firm position, Riquelme wrote. Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s two North African enclaves, are not simply gateways into Spain, he noted, but entry points to the European Union and its 27 member states.
The 2030 World Cup is expected to be presented as both a celebration of football and an alliance between civilisations. But Marca concluded that the celebrations would be better “when the house is in order”.
