(Telegraph) With less than two months to go for the decision by the FIFA executive on which African country will stage the 2010 World Cup, Morocco appears to be tied with the favourite, South Africa.
One senior FIFA executive member, speaking to me in London last week, said: "The two countries are tied but the force is with Morocco, they are making all the running."
When the race began a year ago South Africa, which lost by one vote to Germany in a hotly contested battle for the 2006 finals, was considered the runaway favourite but Morocco has surprised FIFA with the strength of their campaign.
Led by the charismatic Saad Kettani, a banker and a diplomat, Morocco's campaign is different to the dismal one for 2006 when it was eliminated in the first round with two out of 24 votes. Then when the FIFA inspection team visited the country they were shown barren fields.
This time the team has been shown eight stadiums, some under construction, some being modernised. Also Morocco has cleverly chosen Marrakech, the historic imperial capital, as the headquarters for FIFA, with the executive housed in the hotel Winston Churchill loved. Morocco has also emphasised to the Europeans, who have eight out of 24 votes, that a World Cup in Morocco would be an extension of Europe: same time zone, two or three hours' flying time away, from southern Spain just a ferry ride to Tangier.
To complete the picture the Moroccans have also recruited Alan Rothenberg, the man who ran the 1994 finals in the United States and made the inspection report for 2006, and Daniel Rupf, the FIFA man who organised the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan.
The best estimate of voting intentions may mean that, even if Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, goes for South Africa, it should tie the voting - but Morocco still has hopes of persuading one vote from South America, which could give it a sensational victory
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