Safi – Polo has long been called the game of kings, and in Morocco the name fits more literally than most places. The sport sits where horses, heritage and high society meet, and it has the royal patronage to match.

The game is not new to the country. Polo arrived in the early 20th century, when British diplomats formed the first team in Tangier and later opened a club in Casablanca. For decades it stayed a small, closed world.

Its revival came with the crown. In 2006 the Royal Guard launched the first Mohammed VI International Polo Trophy, and that November Morocco became the first Arab and African member of the International Federation of Polo. The Royal Moroccan Polo Federation followed, charged with growing the sport at home.

Today the scene runs across four cities, with clubs and grounds in Rabat, Marrakech, Tangier and Casablanca. The Royal Guard Polo Club in Rabat is the country’s showpiece, and it hosts the international trophy’s final each year.

A sport, and a way to spend a weekend

What makes polo a lifestyle story, and not only a sporting one, is everything around the field. A match is as much a social event as a contest, with as much attention on the sidelines as on the play itself.

Marrakech has leaned hardest into that appeal. The Marrakech Polo Club sits inside the 50-hectare Jnan Amar resort, about 20 minutes from the city, pairing two full-size fields and stables with week-long stays that fold the sport into a wider Moroccan holiday. 

Its calendar mixes serious competition with softer entry points: a Christmas and New Year challenge, ladies’ polo weeks, beginner clinics and the Moroccan Throne Cup.

That range is the point. Polo still reads as exclusive, but the clubs increasingly sell it as something to try, not only to inherit.

A team that now wins

The luxury framing aside, Morocco has also become competitive. In May the national team beat the United States 9-5 to win the 2026 Mohammed VI International Polo Cup in Rabat, capping a run that also saw it see off Hungary and Portugal in a field of six nations.

For a sport that landed here as a diplomat’s pastime a century ago, that is a long way to travel. In Morocco, the game of kings is no longer only for watching.