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Rabat – In light of recent developments in favor of Morocco’s position in Western Sahara, Algeria continues its concerning trend of displaying anonymity – particularly by politicizing sports.
The latest Algerian smear campaign against Morocco came earlier today as Algerian authorities decided to deny entry to Moroccan football club RS Berkane for displaying a complete map of Morocco on their jerseys.
This incident once again shows the depth of Algeria’s determination to continue to exploit any opportunity to showcase its hostility to Morocco.
Facing a decline in regional influence, the Algerian regime considers Morocco as a threat. With diplomatic lobbying and political smearing having largely failed over the past decades, Algeria has increasingly turned to politicizing sports to undermine Morocco’s diplomatic gains on the Sahara question.
The North African country has politicized numerous sporting events while relevant authorities, including the Confederation of African Football (CAF) remain inactive to tackle the situation.
Last year, CAF inaction deprived Morocco of the right to take part in the CHAN tournament after Algeria, the host country of the continental tournament, closed its airspace to Royal Air Maroc, the official carrier of Morocco’s national teams.
Morocco protested Algeria’s move, urging the Confederation of African Football Federation (CAF) to intervene.
Yet CAF failed to forcibly intervene even as the organization’s president, Patrice Motsepe, acknowledged that Morocco’s team had experienced an uncalled-for “blockade” at the hand of Algerian authorities.
“I recognized it as a blockade. I said, ‘Allow them to come,’ but they [Algeria’s government] said it is a sovereign matter, we are dealing with this issue,” Motsepe said on January 13, last year.
Lingering smear
Amid the unending provocations by the Algerian regime, many in Morocco are increasingly calling on the country’s authorities to respond in kind to what they perceive as bullying and unnecessarily provocative.
In particular, these critics of Morocco’s tendency to ignore such provocations have urged the Moroccan authorities to deny entry to the Algerian club USM Alger for the second leg of the CAF Confederation Cup.
Meanwhile, many Moroccan commenters have called on CAF to intervene this time to end the Algerian regime’s politicization of sports and prevent it from using football matches to settle political scores with Morocco.
They also stressed that if CAF once again fails to tackle the situation, the Moroccan football federation should request a FIFA intervention to end this Algerian cycle of politicizing sport to gain revenge after suffering several deadly blows on the diplomatic and geopolitical fronts.
Algeria cut ties with Morocco in August 2021, falsely accusing Rabat of being behind the wildfires that devastated some Algerian regions.
Despite the persistent smear campaign, Morocco has for years shown its willingness to mend diplomatic ties through “direct and frank dialogue” with Algeria.
King Mohammed VI has repeatedly extended an olive branch to Algeria, expressing a genuine desire for reconciliation.
But the calls for dialogue have all evidently fallen on deaf ears, with this latest incident showing the Algerian regime’s determination to seize any opportunity to challenge Morocco’s territorial integrity and showcase its commitment to sponsoring Polisario’s separatist in southern Morocco.
