Morocco Still Awaiting Algeria’s Official Response Ahead of CHAN Kickoff

Rabat – Morocco’s Football Federation (FRMF) says its request for the Moroccan team to fly directly to Constantine to take part in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) has still not received any official response from host country Algeria and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

While there have been news reports of Algeria’s likely or implied rejection of the Moroccan request, the FRMF has indicated not receiving any official response from both the CAF and the Algerian football league three days ahead of the continental tournament’s kickoff.

“The CHAN starts in a few days, and we are still awaiting a response from the Algerian authorities,” a source from FRMF told Moroccan news outlet Le360, stressing Morocco’s “readiness” to tackle “all eventualities.”

Delay and blame-shifting

Countries participating in the tournament, including the host nation Algeria, are gearing up for the continental event.

Meanwhile, as Morocco continues to prepare for the tournament while awaiting an official response to its request, it is not clear whether the Moroccan team will take part in the competition.

Even as it continues to delay issuing an official response to the Moroccan request, something that should have taken less than a week, Algeria appears to be playing its usual blame-shifting and finger-pointing game.

Declining to directly respond to the Moroccan request a day after receiving it, Rachid Oukali, the head of the CHAN organizing committee shirked his county’s responsibility in the situation by claiming that the host nation is not responsible for ensuring a direct flight route for the participating teams.

Political tensions

Last week, meanwhile, Algerian Minister of Sports Abderrazak Sebgag also appeared to point to Algeria’s rejection of the Moroccan request.

Unlike Oukali, who appeared to vaguely and unconvincingly invoke CAF regulations, the Algerian sports minister looked to attribute Algeria’s apparent rejection of the FRMF’s request to his country’s inviolable sovereignty.

Morocco’s FRMF has been reiterating that the Moroccan national team might boycott the tournament if Algerian authorities do not allow a direct Royal Air Maroc flight to carry the Atlas Lions from Rabat to the Algerian city of Constantine, where the Moroccan team is scheduled to play its group matches.

As the host country of an important continental competition, Algeria should put in place all measures to facilitate countries’ participation in the tournament, the head of FRMF, Fouzi Lekjaa, said recently.

In his statement last week, Algeria’s sports minister acknowledged that his country’s football federation (FAF) and authorities were “seized by CAF” regarding Morocco’s request.

Relations between Algeria and Morocco have been tense over the past two years, and tensions have especially deteriorated in recent months as Algeria continued to accuse Morocco, albeit without proof, of conspiring to undermine Algerian interests and “sabotage Algerian democracy.”

The Algerian sports minister implicitly pointed to the political tensions as the main reason for Algeria’s refusal to positively respond to the FRMF’s request. “The FAF will respond to CAF via official channels. Algeria has its laws, its sovereignty which is above all consideration,” he said.