NAIROBI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Retired Nigerian football icon and bid Ambassador, Daniel Amokachi, led a delegation from the Morocco 2026 FIFA World Cup to sell their bid to Kenya.
The northern African country is bidding to be the second African nation after South Africa 2010 to stage the summer global football showpiece that will be held in Russia in June.
Amokachi, who played 44 time for the Nigeria Super Eagles, is one of the five envoys elected by Morocco who hosted and won the 2017 African Home Nations Championships to promote their bid in sub Saharan Africa.
The delegation presented the bid book to Football Kenya Federation president, Nick Mwendwa in Nairobi on Wednesday.
"It's all about Africa, it's all about Morocco. When Morocco bids, it's the continent that bids. Morocco cannot do without the continent and the continent cannot do with Morocco.
"It took 100 years for Africa to host the World Cup in 2010. Why should we wait for that long?" said Amokachi, who featured at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups in USA and France.
"The world agreed if it is not the greatest World Cup ever, it is one of the best. If we don't get it in 2026, it will take another 80 or 100 years for us to host it and we don't want that," he added.
Morocco has been on a charm offensive with the five ambassadors already presenting their campaign to the COSAFA region countries of South Africa, Zambia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Swaziland before making a sixth stop in Kenya.
In his remarks, the Kenyan federation bid pledged to support Morocco when the voting for the hosts of the 2026 World Cup comes despite the fact the country replaced Kenya as the hosts of the second tier continental tournament last year.
"We are happy to have this conversation. We have looked at Morocco deeply and what they have done in terms of infrastructure. We will support them, it is clear that Africa is supporting Morocco and we are discussing at different levels as presidents on how we can have the World Cup in Africa. It is an advantage for us, it's faster to get there, it's in Africa and Morocco is closer to Europe," Mwendwa assured.
Amokachi was in the company of Royal Moroccan Football Federation officials with the country competing with the already announced joint bid from Canada, Mexico and USA from North American football bloc CONCACAF.
Argentina and Uruguay in South America have also expressed interest in putting forward another joint bid with the 2026 edition being the first of the expanded 48-team tournament.
The final decision will be made at the FIFA Congress in June ahead of the Russia 2018 World Cup. Enditem
