Rabat - French giants Paris Saint Germain said in a statement that they have chosen Morocco for their winter break from 27 to 31 December to meet their Moroccan fans.
However, the reason behind PSG's decision to change venues from Doha, Qatar to Marrakech is to catch up with the Real Madrid and Barcelona brands in the Maghreb region.
According to French website Metronews, the visit of the Parisian club to Marrakech is more driven by economic considerations than only to 'meet fans and the passionate of football' as it was stated in the club's statement published on Monday.
"The idea is to travel the Qatar Winter Tour to different countries, to talk about the PSG. We really want to boost the PSG and Qatar brands in the Maghreb and conquer this very promising market," a source acquainted with the issue was cited by the French website.
"People are crazy about football there [Maghreb region] and even if PSG are becoming known there, it remains far behind the fame of Real Madrid or Barcelona," the source added.
The French website said that PSG's big sponsors from Qatar, France and the United States, are very interested in supporting the club in developing its brand in new countries and potential promising markets.
The same source went on to add that the Qatari-owned team will have meetings with two potential Moroccan sponsors in addition to the Moroccan subsidiaries of PSG's current sponsors such as Coca-Cola local, Microsoft local and Huawai local (Chinese company third worldwide in the smartphones business).
"Two sponsors Ooredoo and Qatar National Bank (QNB) work great in the Maghreb. The change was interesting for them too because they are mostly located in Algeria and Tunisia," said the source cited by Metronews.
"It makes sense since they seek to conquer the Moroccan market," the source added.
Other reasons PSG and Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), the tour main sponsor, based upon to choose Morocco as new hosting venue of the winter break is the fact that it takes many hours to travel to Qatar while Morocco is not that far from France.
Last year, Real Madrid made an eight hour flight to play PSG in a friendly. They suffered a jet lag and left immediately after the game which the Los Blancos won 1-0.
Inter Milan, the Italian side that will play against PSG in Marrakech on December 31st, also expressed their desire not to go too far from Europe.