Algiers expands the scope of its dispute with Rabat in the field of sports for political purposes
- Kaylia Nemour, the world gymnastics champion, the biggest victim of her country's policies
- Serious sanctions in sight
The case of what should now be called the discord jersey, set up from scratch by the Algerian government, has taken on unsuspected proportions until it came to encompass other sports disciplines including handball and gymnastics. A way, for Algiers, to trigger a media war against its western neighbor. As a result, Algerian public opinion is being clubbed morning and evening by an anti-Moroccan campaign whose purpose is to call for general mobilization against the "external enemy who threatens national sovereignty".
Yes, the word is dropped. The geographical map of the Cherifian kingdom flocked on the jersey of the football team of the Berkane Sports Renaissance "touches on national sovereignty". This is what continues to be repeated through sports broadcasts, journalists, columnists and sports executives. The jersey of the Moroccan team is "a provocation of the makhzen" we proclaim in Algiers. "A provocation that we will not let pass like this. Our honor is at stake and it is a matter of principle," thunders Toufik Korichi, the sports director of USM Algiers, winner of the last edition of the CAF cup and the African super club cup, and opponent of RS Berkane.
The appeal made to the CAF to protest against the wearing of a flocked jersey of the geographical map of Morocco is rejected. The African football body gives match won on green carpet for the benefit of the Moroccan club which nevertheless did not show up on the lawn of the July 5 stadium. The Moroccans have a strong argument: their jerseys were confiscated at Algiers airport. So they didn't have any equipment to play with. And it is not the grotesque manufacture of jerseys, by their opponents of the day, that will change their minds. The leaders of the USMA and those of the FAF (the Algerian Football Federation) are well aware that the famous discord jersey is approved by the CAF and no team has the right to change their jersey during the competition.
Rejected by CAF, the leaders of USM Algiers led by Walid Sadi, the president of the FAF fly to Lausanne, Switzerland, to file an appeal with CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sports). They pay a deposit of 50,000 euros and the fees of three foreign lawyers (an Italian, a Frenchman and a Swiss, according to the Algerian sports channel El-Heddaf TV).
The arguments put forward by the Algerian side are based on "the manifest politicization of a football match by the Moroccan club in complicity with CAF, which violated its own rules". The complainants pretend to forget that the politicization began at the Algiers airport by the confiscation of the visiting team's jersey by the Algerian customs services long before they were even worn by the players on the field. An unprecedented case in the annals of sport, around the world. They are also unaware that the geographical map they are disputing is the one that appears in the FIFA Museum in Zurich. A stone's throw from the CAS headquarters where they went to plead their case.
This expenditure of time, energy and money was of no help to the Algerian regime which knew for a fact that it hoped nothing from the Court of Arbitration for Sports. The latter rejected the FAF and the club it represents, the USMA, in their request to suspend the execution of CAF's decision to give the first leg match won by RS Berkane. In addition to the winning of the return match that the Algerian team had refused to play, while they had made the trip to Morocco where a warm welcome had been reserved for them. The president of the Board of directors of the USMA, Hacene Hassena, had not failed to describe the welcome as "fraternal". Throughout its stay in the wonderful Moroccan seaside resort Saïdia, bordering the Algerian city of Marset Ben Mehidi, the Algerian delegation did not raise the slightest protest about the conditions of the stay. The only black point is their inability to cross swords, sportively, with their hosts. The Algerian players were very disappointed to have lost their trophy that they wanted to keep after winning the previous edition, by a political decision taken by their rulers for sordid calculations that ended up revealing themselves in the open in the wake of this semi-final of the CAF cup.
Kaylia Nemour, the world gymnastics champion, the biggest victim of her country's policies
Indeed, the Algerian-Moroccan double confrontation on behalf of the CAF cup was only the beginning of a journey that will affect other competitions and sports disciplines. The proof of the politicization of sport by the Algerian government is materialized by the withdrawal of the Algerian teams, in a single week, from three competitions taking place in Morocco. The most serious decision is that taken by the Algerian ministry of youth and sports which refused to validate the Algerian participation in the African artistic gymnastics championships which are taking place in Marrakech from April 30 to May 7. A qualifying competition for the Paris 2024 Olympiads. This decision will be a serious blow to the world champion Kaylia Nemour, who had left the ranks of the French team to defend the Algerian colors. This gymnast, a gift from heaven for Algeria who has not invested a dime in her training and whose harvest of medals at each sporting event is most fruitful for a discipline that has fallen into disuse, in Algeria, since the retirement of the Lazhari family whose eldest, Larbi Lazhari, was the first Algerian athlete to participate in the Olympic Games. It was in Tokyo 1964.
Kaylia Nemour entered the history of gymnastics, on May 26, 2023, during the African Championships in Pretoria. There, the prodigious Algerian has inscribed a new element with asymmetric bars in the scoring code that today bears her name. Decryption of this new movement, now called the "Nemour", which will remain engraved in stone. It's like that heel in football that bears the name of his compatriot Rabah Madjer.
The withdrawal, for no reason whatsoever, of the Algerian team has forever destroyed the dream that this gymnast harbored of winning the gold medal on the uneven bars at the Paris Olympics to taunt the French officials who condemned her to a forced retirement following an injury from which she recovered with great self-sacrifice and sacrifices. The Algerian political leaders turned out to be more cruel than those of the French gymnastics federation. They simply deprived her of realizing a dream that she had been fondling for a long time. That of getting on the top step of the Olympic Games podium.
Another victim of the politicization of sport by the Algerian government in all confrontations with Morocco, the young handball players of the national team under 17. They were forced to leave the competition on Tuesday, April 23, at the indoor hall of the Mohammed V sports complex as part of the third day of the Arab Championship for under-17s in the discipline. They had to meet the Moroccan team.
Serious sanctions in sight
These withdrawals from sports competitions will be very expensive for Algeria. In addition to the defeats recorded on the green carpet, serious sanctions should be expected from the various international federations of the disciplines concerned.
In football, there is a risk of seeing a ban on participation in all competitions organized by CAF for a minimum period of two years. Which risks leading to an exclusion from the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. And the African Cup of Nations scheduled to take place in Morocco in 2025. For the latter, it would be a boon for the Algerian generals to see the CAF prohibit the Algerian selection from participating in the competition. Thus, Algerian fans will not travel to discover Morocco, its economic achievements and the standard of living of its inhabitants which far exceeds that of oil Algeria.
It is good to recall that the map of Morocco, in its entirety, which made the Algerian leaders talk for a football match, has never been the subject of the slightest dispute in the corridors of the palaces which had to shelter Arab political demonstrations. She was, indeed, admitted by Algeria during the Arab summit that was held on November 1 and 2, 2022 in ... Algiers.
Obviously, the choice of the sports field to fan the fire between Algeria and Morocco has for its sole purpose the general mobilization against the "external enemy". Nothing better than sport to call for the sacrosanct national union around a very contested power. We would have to concede to this regime that it has managed to embroil a good part of the population in its anti-Moroccan delirium, by a media bludgeon led by a stipendiary press subservient to power and by affidavits who are rampant on social networks. As the early presidential election approaches in September 2024, this matters a lot in the eyes of a faltering regime undermined by infighting and chapel quarrels.