How a New Jersey town has struggled to embrace Morocco’s World Cup team

Until the World Cup began in mid-June, Caroline Corley had never watched a football match.

The 22-year-old graduate of Rutgers University says her interest piqued when she learned that both Brazil and Morocco, two powerhouses of football (or soccer in the US), would use her small hometown, Basking Ridge, as their base during the opening round of the tournament.

She could hardly believe that this quiet community in central New Jersey, was set to play a part in an event of such global significance.

She watched the USA vs Paraguay game on 12 June, then the Morocco vs Brazil game the next day, and has been a convert to the beautiful game ever since.

The Moroccan team, ranked sixth in the world and number one in Africa, set up residency at the Somerset Hotel and continue to train at the local Pingree School between games.

Likewise, five-time champions Brazil are staying at The Ridge Hotel and practising at Columbia Park Training Facility in nearby Morristown. 

“Growing up in a small town – or what you think is a small town – and having something so huge coming to your town is really shocking,” Caroline tells Middle East Eye. 

Both teams reportedly asked to be placed in the vicinity to allow easier travel to the stadiums during the first round as well as relative proximity to sizeable Brazilian and Moroccan communities in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

With one match remaining against Haiti on 24 June, Morocco are all but confirmed to reach the knockout stages, and if their goal difference is higher than Brazil’s in the final fixture, they could even top the group and potentially remain in the region for the knockout stages.

This makes Basking Ridge a temporary base for two of the most exciting teams at this year’s tournament. 

Caroline, along with sisters Anya and Fiona Cebulski, also residents of Basking Ridge, says it has been exhilarating to see the Moroccan team drive through the town with a police escort and have fans wander by to try to steal a glimpse of the team at training, or a player at a local eatery. 

“I know people have gone to watch them practice or tried to scope out where they are,” says 22-year-old Fiona.

But beneath the veneer of excitement, some residents say the town has not fully embraced the moment.

They say they see how the Algerian team were welcomed in Missouri and feel as if the townfolk here could have used the opportunity to fully embrace the teams and make the town feel like an international hub, especially during a fraught political moment.

When MEE visited last Friday ahead of Morocco’s fixture with Scotland, there was little signage on the streets hinting it was home to a global football festival. 

One of the town’s cafes had small decorative flags set in potted plants outside, while a banner advertising the Brazil-Morocco fixture on 13 June hung over the street.

A few minutes’ drive away at the Somerset Hotel, a lone banner welcoming “The Atlas Lions” stood outside the hotel lobby. To the casual visitor there was little to show a town hosting two of the biggest teams in the tournament. The atmosphere, as several residents and workers told MEE, was low key. 

The young women say they may know why.

‘Basking Ridge bubble’

Basking Ridge is small, affluent suburban community known for its tree-lined streets, historic downtown, and sprawling suburban homes.

Though less than an hour from New York City, it has a reputation for horse farms, country estates, and as the quiet headquarters of several corporate giants, including Barnes & Noble and Verizon.

Fiona says the town of around 10,000 people, of whom four in five are white, also has a reputation for being somewhat exclusionary, which she says is known locally as the “Basking Ridge bubble”.

She says the townsfolk – especially the older generations – are more conservative, and closed-minded when it comes to matters of diversity.  

In a state dominated by the Democratic Party, Bernard Township within which Basking Ridge is located, is traditionally Republican run.

‘Our local community has many soccer enthusiasts’

– Ana Duarte McCarthy, Bernard Township mayor

In 2025, the township switched over to Democratic leadership for the first time in 90 years. 

During the 2024 election, most residents of the township, which includes Basking Ridge, voted for Kamala Harris, though the margin was narrow, with Donald Trump capturing 47 percent of the vote.

Fiona says the town’s political compass is part of the reason it has not come alive for the teams staying there.

Bernards Township Mayor Ana Duarte McCarthy disputes this characterisation, saying the town welcomes the teams enthusiastically.

She says the town was extremely excited and that it had organised activities during the first week of the tournament, including a watch party for the Brazil-Morocco game as well as a youth tournament that drew around 2,500 players and their families.

“Our local community has many soccer enthusiasts,” McCarthy tells MEE. “It has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play host to Morocco!

“Personally my husband and I saw Morocco vs Saudi Arabia in 1994, so it’s extraordinary to be in our community, at this time, 30-plus years later, as mayor, and being part of the efforts made to welcome the team to Basking Ridge.” 

Hundreds of people have attended some of the training sessions at Pingry School where the Moroccan team have been training.

While the team itself may be comfortable, the students say the town has not presented itself as a welcoming hub for a diverse range of visitors.

They add that it is impossible to separate the subdued response from the wider context of the town.

Anya says debates about race, for intance, are often shoved under the carpet.

Other issues, such as the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – a political question that has created deep fissures between younger and older generations across the United States – are not openly discussed in the town, further widening the divide. 

She says a Republican political culture has also increasingly “encroached” on local life, contributing to incidents of censorship and a limit on discussion about what are deemed to be contentious political issues of the time.

In 2023, the Bernard Township made national news, when two proposed sociology text books for Ridge High School were rejected by the local Board of Education over concerns they were too extreme and ideological on questions of race and police brutality. 

Anya was at the high school at the time when it happened.

“I think it’s getting worse because of parental engagement in schools,” says Anya. “They don’t want their kids learning things that are different to how they they think.” 

The small Muslim community in the district has previously faced sustained opposition during efforts to build the first and only mosque in Basking Ridge, which was contested for several years before eventually proceeding after a legal settlement.

As part of the resolution, the town agreed to pay $3.25m in a lawsuit brought by the Islamic Society.

In its complaint filed in court, the Islamic Society said the community had faced a barrage of abuse, saying “fliers, social media and websites denounced the mosque and were filled with anti-Muslim bigotry and references to terrorism and the 9/11 attacks”.

“I think people here didn’t do more to welcome the teams because they have never been the people who need to be welcomed … they don’t know what it feels to be an outsider,” says Anya. 

Economic promises

Though economic opportunity is promoted as among the selling points of hosting the World Cup, it is unclear if towns, like Basking Ridge, hosting teams stand to gain much.

There is little evidence that such visibility translates into substantial or lasting economic gains for local residents and businesses.

Opinion and expectation in Bernard Township is split.

At a cafe on South Finley Avenue, a staff member wearing a football shirt says they have noticed an uptick in business since the team’s arrival.

But another small business owner on the same street says he has not seen any significant increase in footfall.

At the strip mall across the street from Somerset Hotel, where the Moroccan team is staying, a hostess at a restaurant says there has been a noticeable buzz among some visiting fans, particularly teenagers eager to catch a glimpse of the players or secure an autograph.

She laughs as she recalls small groups of teenagers stopping by the restaurant to ask staff if they would be alerted should the team arrive for a meal.

Two high-school students, Eric and Michael, working through freshly baked bagels outside a cafe, tell MEE it is “cool” and “important” for a place like Basking Ridge to host a global sporting event, even if the sport is not their favourite one.

“I’m not really into soccer. I’m into UFC,” says Michael with a grin.

Reflecting on the first two weeks of the World Cup, Caroline says it has given the town an opportunity to foster community and bring people together, particularly during a fraught political moment.

Given the prohibitive costs and travel hurdles for many fans – many of whom were denied entry to the United States – it felt like a rare and valuable chance to use the game to encourage dialogue and understanding between communities and neighbourhoods. 

Likewise, Anya says the Moroccan team coming to Basking Ridge should have been used as a catalyst to open the town beyond itself.

“I hope it does turn into that, but I feel like there might just be too much closed-mindedness for it to take full form,” she adds.