African country to build incredible new £431m world’s biggest football stadium | World | News
An epic football stadium set to have the largest capacity in the world is currently under construction, and a major update about when it may be completed was revealed last month. Hassan II Stadium is a vast project taking shape in the commune of El Mansouria, in Morocco‘s Benslimane Province, close to the iconic city of Casablanca.
It’s set to become the home of the north African country’s national football team, as well as Morocco’s two biggest clubs, Wydad AC and Raja CA, who currently share the existing Stade Mohammed V. The new site is planned to have a staggering 115,000 seats, slightly larger than that of North Korea’s Rungrado May Day Stadium, which is thought to have around 113,000.
It would also be larger than Barcelona’s iconic ground, Camp Nou, even taking into account the Catalan club’s ongoing expansion, which will boost capacity from 99,000 to around 105,000.
It comes as Morocco’s prepares to be one of the host nations at the 2030 FIFA World Cup, alongside Portugal and Spain, and officials believe the stadium will be completed well before the final, the location of which has yet to be decided.
Structural construction reportedly started in August last year, and the project is now currently around 30% complete.
During a site visit Yassir Soussi, a director at the national agency overseeing infrastructure projects, told Reuters that they are planning to complete the stadium by the end of 2027.
It will be the centrepiece of a wider sports and entertainment complex built over 100 hectares, with a variety of other sports venues, hospitality, and training facilities.
The football ground itself is expected to cost around $500million (around £431million).
Mr Soussi said the total cost, including facilities associated with it, are estimated be around $1billion (approximately £863m).
Pictures taken inside construction site show the huge national sports hub taking shape, as workers build in round-the-clock shifts to get it done in time.
Morocco’s in-the-works mega-stadium is named after the country’s former king, who reigned from 1961 until his death in 1999.
