As Morocco races to build the world’s largest football stadium, a 1,15,000-seat colossus in preparation for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, a youth-led uprising is demanding the government redirect its billions toward something far more urgent: hospitals, schools, and basic dignity.
Fueled by fury over crumbling public services and galvanised by the preventable deaths of eight women in an Agadir maternity ward last month, thousands of young Moroccans have flooded city streets nightly since 27 September, chanting: “No World Cup—health comes first!” and “We want hospitals, not football stadiums!”
At the heart of the movement is Gen Z 212—a leaderless, digitally native coalition named after Morocco’s international dialling code. Organised through Discord, TikTok, and Instagram, and inspired by recent youth protests in Nepal, the demonstrators are rejecting decades of political apathy with one clear message: national pride cannot be built on broken healthcare and empty promises.
“I’m protesting because I love my country—but I refuse to resent it for failing me,” says Hajar Belhassan, a 25-year-old communications manager from Settat. “We’re not asking for luxury. We’re asking for free healthcare, quality education, decent jobs, and a future where we don’t have to flee Morocco to survive.”
The grievances are stark. Morocco has just 7.8 doctors per 10,000 people—less than one-third of the WHO’s recommended minimum. Public hospitals lack beds, equipment, and staff. Meanwhile, the government is pouring an estimated $5 billion (£3.7 billion) into World Cup infrastructure, including gleaming stadiums, transport upgrades, and fan zones.
For many, the contrast is unbearable.
Hakim, a 23-year-old protester from Casablanca (who asked to remain anonymous), was arrested during a peaceful demonstration and held with 40 others in a police cell. “My father had a stroke,” he says. “If we hadn’t had savings for a private hospital, he’d be dead. What good is a World Cup if the state can’t save your parents?”
Crackdown and casualties
The state’s response has been swift—and severe. According to the interior ministry, 409 people have been detained, 260 police officers and 20 protesters injured, and 60 vehicles torched in escalating clashes. Tragically, three protesters were killed on 1 October in Lqliaa after demonstrators attempted to storm a police station—a move authorities say involved arson and attempts to seize weapons.
While protest organisers have condemned violence and looting, they’ve also mobilised clean-up crews and repeatedly called for peaceful dialogue. Yet trust in official overtures remains low.
Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch has offered talks, but Gen Z 212 remains sceptical. “We have no leaders, no party ties—just demands,” says Belhassan. “Maybe that’s why they don’t know how to deal with us. We don’t fit their old playbook.”
A movement unlike any before
Though Morocco has seen youth uprisings before—during the Arab Spring in 2011 and the Hirak protests in 2016—Gen Z 212 stands apart: decentralised, digital-first, and defiantly apolitical. Their demands, widely circulated online, include universal access to free, quality healthcare and education; affordable housing and reliable public transport; job creation and living wages; subsidies on basic goods; and the adoption of English as a second language in place of French.
Some demonstrators have even begun calling for the king to dissolve the government—a once-unthinkable demand in a nation where the monarchy remains deeply revered.
Yet even amid anger, there’s no rejection of football itself. “Of course we’re excited for 2030,” says Belhassan. “Football is in our blood. But you don’t build a nation’s pride on stadiums while its people bleed in underfunded hospitals.”