Some felt the Tunisian tournament lacked passion

Although the hosts won the tournament, many feel that the momentum for the World Cup will now swing behind Morocco ahead of Fifa's decision on 15 May in Zurich, in part because people in Tunisia did not seem to make the most of hosting the Cup of Nations.

The BBC's Durosimi Thomas described fans in Tunisia as "begging" for atmosphere.

And Segun Odegbami, who chaired Nigeria's planned five-nation bid, is among those who feel Tunisia's bid has been crucially damaged.

"If I was one of those considering [the bids], Tunisia is out of it," Odegbami told BBC World Service's World Football programme.

"This is a championship that had a little bit of football, but no soul to it.

"It happears the Tunisians didn't do anything to project this championship, or to do anything."

Problems

Egypt and Libya are also in the running, but Tunisia and Morocco are seen as the only likely opposition to South Africa, the hot favourites.

Odegbami - whose bid was disqualified by Fifa - said he felt Morocco had "earned the right" to be North Africa's nomination.

Odegbami was bitterly disappointed that Nigeria's bid was disqualified

"They have done so well," he said.

"Their contribution to the image that African football has at the moment cannot be underestimated.

"The passion of the game in Morocco is definitely more than they had in Tunisia. So I for one would, if I had to choose, gladly choose Morocco."

Meanwhile, Mohammad Hamassi of the BBC Arabic Service, who hosts a number of phone-in and chat shows for people around the North African region, said that he was getting the sense that people were backing Morocco.

"They say that this is the fourth time the Moroccans have tried to organise this," he pointed out.

"Morocco is well positioned for this, because we are strategically better than South Africa, which is far from Europe."

Sympathy

He did, however, admit that there were weaknesses in the Moroccan bid, and that South Africa did have advantages in some areas.

"We don't have stadiums that are on the maps - we have about three. Fifa says we need eight," he said.

"We show them the plans, we don't show them real stadiums. That's a point of weakness.

In total there are still five countries in the running for hosting

"But the same is said about South Africa - they say 'our stadium is for cricket, it is not for football.'

"So the problem for us is that we don't have the infrastructure for sports, for matches, for stadiums. We have some motorways, but we don't have motorways between the north to the Sahara."

Mr Hamassi stressed, however, that Morocco had learned lessons from its previous bids.

This is the fourth time the country has been in the running to stage the World Cup.

"We learned from the previous attempts that we should not go and lobby. In the end, the Fifa committee will choose," he said.

"Before, we used to believe in political and diplomatic contacts. Now, we believe in our strength - what we have and what we don't.