Algeria Gate: Morocco wants the world to see a modern state ready to host football’s biggest event. Media reports show another picture: World Cup preparations built on urban modernization projects that leave Moroccan families facing eviction from their homes and communities.
In an investigation published by the Belgian newspaper De Standaard on August 13th 2026, hundreds of buildings were reported to have been demolished over the past year, particularly in Rabat, in the context of projects to reshape the urban space and exploit land for new projects linked, according to the investigation, to the preparations and investments accompanying the organisation of the World Cup.

Here the most embarrassing question for the Moroccan authorities arises: what image does Morocco want to display to the world in 2030 if some families are paying the price of that image with their homes and stability?
The authorities that spend and plan to complete huge facilities and tourism and urban projects are supposed to place the citizen at the heart of this process, not to make the improvement of the urban façade a priority that advances ahead of protecting the affected families and guaranteeing their rights.
The bigger problem in this issue lies in the way these transformations take place when the citizen becomes the weakest link and finds himself facing bulldozers and administrative decisions in search of an alternative to a home in which he has lived for many years.

In a country that is betting on the World Cup to present a prosperous and modern image, the paradox appears harsh: stadiums are being built to receive the world, while families fear losing their homes; hotels and investment projects expand, while citizens wonder about their fate and their place in this development.
This opens the door to broader criticism of the way priorities are managed inside Morocco. Development cannot be reduced to concrete, major projects and official images, nor can the state be considered successful merely because it is capable of building huge facilities, while pressing social and economic files remain waiting for real solutions.

If the Moroccan authorities want to turn the 2030 World Cup into a showcase for their achievements, they must first answer the questions raised by human-rights and media reports concerning the affected families: where will they live? What is the size of the compensation they have received? And were the eviction operations carried out with sufficient legal and social guarantees?
The most dangerous thing that can happen is that the World Cup turns from an opportunity to improve the lives of Moroccans into a project to improve only the image of Morocco. A state that wants to convince the world that it is modern and advanced is required to prove that first in its treatment of its own citizens, especially the most vulnerable categories.

In the end, Morocco does not need only beautiful façades in order to appear successful before the world; it needs to address the social, urban and economic imbalances that its citizens live with. If Morocco’s image in 2030 is to be built on luxurious stadiums and modern streets, the question that arises is: where is the place of the citizen in this image? And is development built for him, or is he merely asked to pay its price?