"Morocco has made itself a central hub for the continent in football terms — a position strengthened by the announcement that FIFA will open its first permanent African headquarters in Marrakech," said the US newspaper in an op-ed published under the title "How Morocco became a burgeoning football superpower".

In its specialised supplement "The Athletic", the New York Times recalled that the Kingdom became in 2022 the first African or Arab nation to reach a World Cup semi-final.

"It was widely hailed as one of the competition’s great underdog stories, capturing hearts and minds well beyond the continent, but it did not happen by accident," it pointed out, adding that Morocco's "newfound position was only possible because of huge investment in sports facilities."

One of the most striking is the state-of-the-art Mohammed VI football academy, it said, adding that the facility, located just outside Rabat, covers an area of 2.5km squared and boasts a school, medical centre and four pitches.

By 2017, five other regional training centres were built in different parts of the country, the daily said, adding that the Grand Stade Hassan II, which is being constructed with a planned capacity of 115,000, "will be the largest football ground in the world and a symbol of the country’s new-found status as one of the world game’s emerging powers."

Many in the country hope the stadium will stage the 2030 World Cup’s final, the U.S. publication said, adding that before that World Cup, Morocco is also scheduled to host the next five editions of the Under-17 Women’s World Cup, annually from 2025, and, in April, capital city Rabat is expected to host the next World Football Summit, a meeting involving the game’s leaders and industry experts.

"Scouting has improved in Morocco, as have the facilities that can be deployed to develop local talent," the newspaper stressed, adding that last summer the OCP Group signed a deal with the football federation and private partners to create a "national training fund dedicated to the professionalisation of training centres and the promotion of young talent."

"Leading Moroccan clubs, with quality infrastructures behind them, have started to fill the prime places in Africa’s continental competitions: Casablanca’s Wydad lifted the CAF Champions League in 2017 and 2022 and their city rivals Raja won the CAF Confederation Cup in 2018 and 2021," the New York Times pointed out.