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Join on Telegram Rabat – The Algerian U-17 national handball team has withdrawn from the Arab Championship in protest at the Moroccan team wearing a jersey featuring a full map of Morocco.
The news comes as Algeria’s obsessive hostility towards Morocco appears to be taking a new turn, with the country increasingly resorting to the politicization of sport to settle political scores after suffering setbacks on the diplomatic front.
Ahead of a CAF Confederation match in Algeria last week, the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) confiscated CAF-approved jerseys worn by Moroccan club RS Berkane because they featured the undivided map of Morocco.
On Tuesday, the Algerian and Moroccan national teams were scheduled to compete on the third day of the under-17 Arab Championship.
However, the Algerian team’s absence left the Moroccan side without opponents.
Earlier in the day, Karima Taleb, the president of the Algerian Handball Federation, told the news website Ennahar Online that the team would boycott the match “if officials of the opposing team decide to play with a jersey bearing their fake map.”
In recent years, Algeria has consistently used sporting events to push for its political agenda and undermine the notable diplomatic breakthroughs Morocco has achieved on the Western Sahara question.
While hosting the African Nations Championship (CHAN) last year, the Algerian regime took its obsessive Morocco-bashing to the next level.
After denying the Moroccan team the right to participate in the continental tournament and defend their title, the Algerian authorities added insult to injury by turning the tournament’s opening ceremony into a political platform to broadcast support for the Polisario Front, the Algiers-backed separatist group seeking independence in southern Morocco.
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