Among the 211 Fifa member nations, 200 cast a vote at the 68th Fifa Congress in Moscow on Wednesday, with the winners needing a majority of 104. Eleven African countries among them South Africa, failed to vote for the Morocco bid. Others countries are Guinea, Liberia, Benin, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Namibia.
“We were very hopeful but, at the end of the day, if you lose a certain number of votes from your own continent, and from some of our Arab brothers, who flipped coins, then you have no chance,” said Morocco bid ambassador Amokachi.
Canada, Mexico, Morocco and the US were exempt from voting, while Ghana was absent after the country’s government said it had disbanded its football association amid allegations of widespread corruption.