Morocco Quit the OAU in 1984, Then Was Turned Down by the EU in 1987

Morocco’s delegation walked out of an Organization of African Unity summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Nov. 12, 1984, beginning a 33-year absence from the continental body. The trigger was procedural but pointed: that summit was the first the OAU allowed a delegation from the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, the self-declared government of Western Sahara that Morocco considers part of its own territory, Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara covered in full in “The Green March: How Morocco Spun a Court Ruling Against It Into a Land Claim”. The OAU had voted to seat the SADR two years earlier, in February 1982, with 26 member states in favor. King Hassan II’s representative, Reda Guedira, told the gathering the organization was violating its own charter; the king added that Morocco could only wish the OAU “good luck with your new partner.”

Three years later, Morocco tried a different diplomatic path and hit a similar wall. In 1987 it formally applied to join the European Communities, the forerunner of today’s European Union, making it the only African country ever to seek EC or EU membership. The Council of the European Communities rejected the application on Oct. 1, 1987, on a single stated ground: under the treaty’s terms, only a European state could accede, and Morocco was not one.

Morocco’s bids for major sports events fared little better in the years that followed. Awarded the right to host the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco asked the Confederation of African Football to postpone the tournament by a year, citing the West African Ebola outbreak and the risk of tens of thousands of traveling fans spreading the virus. CAF rejected the request as alarmist, stripped Morocco of the hosting rights in November 2014, and moved the tournament to Equatorial Guinea. CAF’s executive committee later found Morocco financially liable for withdrawing, fining the Royal Moroccan Football Federation $1 million, ordering it to pay $9.12 million in damages, and banning the country from the 2017 and 2019 tournaments.

Morocco’s bid to host the 2026 World Cup collapsed by a wider margin. At the FIFA Congress in Moscow on June 13, 2018, federations voted 134-65 to award the tournament to a joint United States-Mexico-Canada bid over Morocco’s proposal, which would have required building or renovating all 14 planned stadiums at an estimated cost of $16 billion. Eleven African federations and seven Arab federations, including Saudi Arabia, voted against Morocco, a result Moroccan media described as a betrayal by supposed allies.

Morocco rejoined the African Union, the OAU’s successor organization, in January 2017. In 2023, FIFA announced that Morocco would co-host the 2030 World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal, making it only the second African country to host the tournament after South Africa in 2010.