Morocco at the FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently takes place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.

Morocco have qualified for the final stages of the FIFA World Cup on six occasions, which were in 1970, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2018 and 2022.^[1] Their best performance was in 2022 when they finished in fourth place, thus becoming both the first African and Arab nation to reach a semi-final at a World Cup.^[2]

Morocco is set to become the second African nation, the second MENA nation, the first North African and first Arab nation to host the World Cup when it was granted host status for the 2030 edition alongside the two European countries Portugal and Spain.

FIFA World Cup record										FIFA World Cup qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930	Not a FIFA member									Not a FIFA member
1934
1938
1950
1954
1958	Did not enter									Did not enter
1962	Did not qualify									7	2	2	3	7	8
1966	Withdrew									Withdrew
1970	Group stage	14th	3	0	1	2	2	6		10	4	4	2	11	7
1974	Did not qualify									10	4	3	3	12	13
1978										2	0	2	0	2	2
1982										8	3	2	3	5	6
1986	Round of 16	11th	4	1	2	1	3	2		8	5	2	1	12	1
1990	Did not qualify									6	1	3	2	4	5
1994	Group stage	23rd	3	0	0	3	2	5		10	7	2	1	19	4
1998		18th	3	1	1	1	5	5		6	5	1	0	14	2
2002	Did not qualify									10	6	3	1	11	3
2006										10	5	5	0	17	7
2010										10	3	3	4	14	13
2014										6	2	3	1	9	8
2018	Group stage	27th	3	0	1	2	2	4		8	4	3	1	13	1
2022	Fourth place	4th	7	3	2	2	6	5		8	7	1	0	25	3
2026	To be determined									To be determined
2030	Qualified as co-hosts									Qualified as co-hosts
2034	To be determined									To be determined
Total	Fourth place	7/25	23	5	7	11	20	27		119	58	39	22	175	83

Morocco's World Cup record
First Match	Morocco 1–2 Germany  (León, Mexico; 3 June 1970)
Biggest Win	Morocco 3–0 Scotland  (Saint-Étienne, France; 23 June 1998)
Biggest Defeat	Peru 3–0 Morocco  (León, Mexico; 6 June 1970)  Brazil 3–0 Morocco  (Nantes, France; 16 June 1998)
Best Result	Fourth place in 2022
Worst Result	Group stage in 1970, 1994, 1998, 2018

World Cup	Round	Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Morocco scorers	Ref.
1970	Group 4	3 June 1970	West Germany	1–2	L	Jarir	[3]
		6 June 1970	Peru	0–3	L	—	[4]
		11 June 1970	Bulgaria	1–1	D	Ghazouani	[5]
1986	Group F	2 June 1986	Poland	0–0	D	—	[6]
		6 June 1986	England	0–0	D	—	[7]
		11 June 1986	Portugal	3–1	W	Khairi (2), Merry	[8]
	Round of 16	17 June 1986	West Germany	0–1	L	—	[7]
1994	Group F	19 June 1994	Belgium	0–1	L	—	[9]
		25 June 1994	Saudi Arabia	1–2	L	Chaouch	[10]
		29 June 1994	Netherlands	1–2	L	Nader	[11]
1998	Group A	10 June 1998	Norway	2–2	D	Hadji, Hadda	[12]
		16 June 1998	Brazil	0–3	L	—	[13]
		23 June 1998	Scotland	3–0	W	Bassir (2), Hadda	[14]
2018	Group B	15 June 2018	Iran	0–1	L	—	[15]
		20 June 2018	Portugal	0–1	L	—	[16]
		25 June 2018	Spain	2–2	D	Boutaïb, En-Nesyri	[17]
2022	Group F	23 November 2022	Croatia	0–0	D	—	[18]
		27 November 2022	Belgium	2–0	W	Saïss, Aboukhlal	[19]
		1 December 2022	Canada	2–1	W	En-Nesyri, Ziyech	[20]
	Round of 16	6 December 2022	Spain	0–0 (a.e.t.) (3–0 p)	D	—	[21]
	Quarter-final	10 December 2022	Portugal	1–0	W	En-Nesyri	[22]
	Semi-final	14 December 2022	France	0–2	L	—	[23]
	Third place play-off	17 December 2022	Croatia	1–2	L	Dari	[24]

Altogether thirteen players share the record of two participations.

The Morocco team had many records and facts which had done during its participations in the world cup.

• 1970: First African country to draw a match at the World Cup Finals, with 1–1 draw with Bulgaria.^[25]
• 1986: First African and Arab team to reach round of 16.^[26]
• 1986: First African and Arab team to top the group stage.^[27]
• 1998: Youssef Chippo of Morocco. first African to score an own goal at the World Cup, in the 2–2 draw against Norway on 10 June 1998.
• 2018: Sofyan Amrabat of Morocco, who came on as a substitute for his brother Nordin Amrabat in the 76th minute in the group match against Iran, is the first player in World Cup history to come in for his brother.^[28]
• 2022: First African team to reach 7 points at the group stage.
• 2022: First Arab nation to advance to the quarter-finals by defeating Spain 3–0 in a penalty shoot-out.^[29][30]
• 2022: Morocco becomes first African and first Arab nation to reach semi-finals following a 1–0 victory over Portugal.^[31]
• 2022: Walid Regragui of Morocco, first African and Arab manager to reach the quarter-finals^[32] and the semi-finals.^[33]
• 2022: First African team to play 7 matches in one edition.
• 2022: First African team to achieve fourth place in the tournament.

• African nations at the FIFA World Cup
• Morocco at the Africa Cup of Nations

• Morocco at FIFA

Opponent	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Belgium	2	1	0	1	2	1	+1	050.00
Brazil	1	0	0	1	0	3	−3	000.00
Bulgaria	1	0	1	0	1	1	+0	000.00
Canada	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1	100.00
Croatia	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	000.00
England	1	0	1	0	0	0	+0	000.00
France	1	0	0	1	0	2	−2	000.00
Germany	2	0	0	2	1	3	−2	000.00
Iran	1	0	0	1	0	1	−1	000.00
Netherlands	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1	000.00
Norway	1	0	1	0	2	2	+0	000.00
Peru	1	0	0	1	0	3	−3	000.00
Poland	1	0	1	0	0	0	+0	000.00
Portugal	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	066.67
Saudi Arabia	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1	000.00
Scotland	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3	100.00
Spain	2	0	2	0	2	2	+0	000.00
Total	23	5	7	11	20	27	−7	021.74