WC 2026 · Forecasting Oxford Football Forecasting
🇲🇦

Morocco

CAF Group C
2.0% Champion probability ±0.04 MC-SE
Coach
Mohamed Ouahbi foreign · Moroccan-Belgian
Elo (model)
1,827 world 12th
Squad value
€509M
Power → Reality
13th 12th +0.08 pp · neutral draw

Fig. D1 Fixture-aware · 100k sims

Morocco — stage progression

Round of 32: 88.80% (95% MC 88.60%–88.99%; MC-SE ±0.10 pts) Round of 32 reach 88.8% ±0.10 Round of 16: 44.93% (95% MC 44.62%–45.24%; MC-SE ±0.16 pts) Round of 16 reach 44.9% ±0.16 Quarter-final: 24.63% (95% MC 24.37%–24.90%; MC-SE ±0.14 pts) Quarter-final reach 24.6% ±0.14 Semi-final: 11.72% (95% MC 11.52%–11.92%; MC-SE ±0.10 pts) Semi-final reach 11.7% ±0.10 Final: 4.88% (95% MC 4.74%–5.01%; MC-SE ±0.07 pts) Final reach 4.9% ±0.07 Champion: 1.97% (95% MC 1.88%–2.05%; MC-SE ±0.04 pts) Champion reach 2.0% ±0.04

On the central forecast, Morocco more likely than not reaches the Round of 32 (89%). Champion probability is 2.0% ± 0.04 pts.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model
Group C Confed Advance (top 2) Reach R32
1🇧🇷BrazilCONMEBOL67.1%98.3%
2🇲🇦MoroccoCAF44.9%88.8%
3🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿ScotlandUEFA25.5%70.4%
4🇭🇹HaitiCONCACAF1.4%11.6%

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model

Bracket position Half 1 · Quadrant 2

Earliest possible meetings

No collision rows recorded for this team.

Collision = the earliest round the bracket wiring could pit Morocco against that side. Full bracket & collision matrix →

Match 7 · 2026-06-13 · New York/New Jersey Stadium away
Morocco Brazil
21.7% win 31.3% draw 47% loss
Most likely 0–1 (15.4%) λ 0.77–1.27 Over 2.5 33% · BTTS 40%
Match 30 · 2026-06-19 · Boston Stadium away
45.9% win 32.8% draw 21.3% loss
Most likely 1–0 (16.8%) λ 1.18–0.71 Over 2.5 29% · BTTS 36%
Match 50 · 2026-06-24 · Atlanta Stadium home
Morocco Haiti
73% win 20.1% draw 6.9% loss
Most likely 2–0 (17.3%) λ 1.96–0.45 Over 2.5 43% · BTTS 32%
How a match forecast is built

Each pairing is scored by the ensemble (Dixon-Coles bivariate-Poisson, the Bayesian hierarchical model and the global LightGBM-Poisson, log-pooled), producing an 11×11 scoreline grid that is marginalised into win/draw/loss, expected goals (λ), over/under 2.5 and both-teams-to-score. These are the same distributions the tournament simulator consumes, oriented here to Morocco. Knockout fixtures are not shown — their occupants are still probabilistic, so there is no single pairing to forecast yet.

Fig. D2 Relative to the 48-team median

Morocco vs the field

Elo rating: 1827 vs field median 1780 (1.03× the field) Elo rating 1827 med 1780 Recent NT form: 2.47 ppg vs field median 1.87 ppg (1.32× the field) Recent NT form 2.47 ppg med 1.87 ppg Squad value: €509M vs field median €286M (1.78× the field) Squad value €509M med €286M Squad form (global): 0.218 vs field median 0.211 (1.03× the field) Squad form (global) 0.218 med 0.211 Fitness readiness: 0.624 vs field median 0.707 (0.88× the field) Fitness readiness 0.624 med 0.707 Familiarity / chemistry: 0.009 vs field median 0.015 (0.60× the field) Familiarity / chemistry 0.009 med 0.015 Experience (mean caps): 19 vs field median 25 (0.77× the field) Experience (mean caps) 19 med 25

Read each row as a multiple of the field median: dots to the right of the dashed line are above-field, to the left below. Raw values are labelled on the right so the comparison is transparent.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model

Fig. D3 Bayesian projection residual g

Morocco on the decoupling axis

aligned (0) ← record > squad price squad valued > record →

g = −0.58 ± 0.09: the record outruns the squad price — the team has achieved more than its comparatively modest squad value would predict.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model
What g means — and its limits

g is the residual from regressing a team’s current squad market value on its history-based strength in the Bayesian hierarchical model. Positive g means the squad is valued above what the team’s record predicts; negative means the record outruns the squad’s price (the side achieves more than its market value implies). Regressed on out-of-sample success the slope is positive — squad-rich sides go a touch further — but not statistically significant at n = 3 tournaments, so treat a single team’s g as a descriptive read, not a hard prediction. The full decoupling essay →

26players
25.4mean age
19mean caps
46%in a top-5 league
23distinct clubs
2largest club bloc
# Player Pos Club League Club min Gls Caps NT gls
1Yassine BounouGKAl-HilalPro League −0.86z6,1010900
2Achraf Hakimi (captain)DFParis Saint-GermainLigue 1 +1.70z3,03149611
3Noussair MazraouiDFManchester UnitedPremier League +2.21z1,3120452
4Sofyan AmrabatMFReal BetisLa Liga +2.13z1,6131750
5Nayef AguerdDFMarseilleLigue 1 +1.70z1,9391642
6Ayyoub BouaddiMFLilleLigue 1 +1.70z3,167040
7Chemsdine TalbiMFSunderlandPremier League +2.21z1,710450
8Azzedine OunahiMFGironaLa Liga +2.13z1,7665499
9Soufiane RahimiFWAl AinPro League −0.09z1,10823712
10Brahim DíazFWReal MadridLa Liga +2.13z1,81422614
11Ismael SaibariMFPSV EindhovenEredivisie +0.74z2,96019319
12Munir MohamediGKRS BerkaneBotola Pro1800530
13Zakaria El OuahdiDFGenkJupiler Pro League −0.07z3,8291230
14Issa DiopDFFulhamPremier League +2.21z1,277140
15Samir El MourabetMFStrasbourgLigue 1 +1.70z3,326240
16Gessime YassineMFStrasbourgLigue 1 +1.70z815050
17Abde EzzalzouliFWReal BetisLa Liga +2.13z3,15014372
18Chadi RiadDFCrystal PalacePremier League +2.21z780061
19Youssef BelammariDFAl AhlyPremier League −0.83z9100190
20Ayoub El KaabiFWOlympiacosno club data7135
21Ayoube AmaimouniFWEintracht FrankfurtBundesliga +1.84z595220
22Ahmed Reda TagnaoutiGKAS FARCAF Champions League −0.05z999030
23Bilal El KhannoussMFVfB StuttgartBundesliga +1.84z2,5839373
24Neil El AynaouiMFRomaSerie A +1.70z1,7152162
25Redouane HalhalDFMechelenJupiler Pro League −0.07z2,849130
26Anass Salah-EddineDFPSV EindhovenEredivisie +0.74z1,674090

Source · Official squad announcements · API-Football (global club coverage). 1 of 26 players have no club season matched in API-Football — shown as “— no club data”, not imputed. Form coverage for this squad: 96%.

Diaspora in the hosts

151,734

4.0 per 1,000 of home population

Host-language familiarity

Foreign

primary language Arabic

Climate adaptation gap

+0.6°C

home-vs-venue heat differential

Venue extremes

37°C

peak heat index · altitude up to 313 m

Travel

6h

max time-zone shift · nearest venue 5,580 km

Source · UN DESA international migrant stock · US Census Bureau · Open-Meteo & venue records

Fig. D4 eloratings.net method · year-end values

Morocco — Elo since 1958

1985 world #12
Morocco Qualified-field median

Morocco ends the series at 1985 Elo, the world’s 12th-ranked side — above the qualified-field median.

Source · eloratings.net
Which Elo is this?

This line is the public eloratings.net series (year-end ratings), which terminates exactly at the current rating and world rank shown on the marker. It is a different number from the Elo shown in the header band (a panel-normalised rating used inside the forecast); the two are ~0.99 correlated but on different scales. We keep them distinct rather than blend them.

96% Squad club-form coverage Share of this squad with a matched club season feeding the global form layer.
96% Fitness-readiness coverage Where below 100%, part of the fitness signal is imputed by the de-biasing layer.
n = 3 Out-of-sample tournaments The model is validated on three held-out World Cups; it matches the market, it does not beat it.

Validated on n=3 held-out tournaments; coverage below 1.0 means part of this squad's club-form/fitness is imputed (the global de-biasing layer). For Morocco, 1 of 26 players are shown as “— no club data”. Full validation, calibration & conformal coverage →