Morocco are the first-ever African semifinalists of the World Cup. Here’s what geographical data tell us about this result
Staff, 2022-12-17 23:00:50,
Stephen Woodcock, University of Technology Sydney
The 2022 FIFA World Cup has certainly attracted plenty of negative press, with scandal from bidding process through to the tournament itself. Yet out of this negativity, one positive storyline has arisen.
With victories over two recent European champions – Spain and Portugal – Morocco have become the first African nation to reach the last four of the World Cup.
Mapping a path to the final
Could the location of the tournament itself partially explain the Moroccans’ surprise progress? When an Asian side – South Korea in 2002 – similarly broke the duopoly of Europe and the Americas, it was on home soil.
An African squad would have made it to the semifinals 12 years ago in the first World Cup to be hosted on that continent, if not for one of the most infamously unsporting acts in the game’s history, at the hands (literally) of Uruguay’s Luis Suarez.
Now the World Cup is played in the Arab world for the first time and, perhaps not coincidentally, we are seeing a nation from the region reach unprecedented heights.
Geography could matter more than we think
In 21 previous tournaments, only three teams have lifted the trophy without being either hosts or a prior champion. One of those – West Germany in 1954 – did so in a neighbouring country.
Before 2010, no European nation had won the tournament outside Europe and only one non-European nation had won on the…
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