Doha – The ongoing tensions between Algeria and Morocco have once again impacted the world of sports, this time in the realm of tennis, according to Spanish news outlet La Razón, citing Moroccan media reports.
Five Moroccan tennis players—Ghita Sebbar, Yasmine Douyeb, Ghali Komat, Mehdi Cherkaoui, and Amine Jabrani—along with their coach Hamid Abderrazak, were reportedly subjected to mistreatment and ultimately expelled by Algerian authorities upon their arrival at Houari Boumediene Airport in Algeria. The team was set to participate in the ITF J60 International Junior Tennis Championship.
The Moroccan delegation was allegedly forced to endure humiliating searches within the airport corridors. Despite the intervention of the Algerian Tennis Federation and the Algerian Consulate in Rabat, the team spent a miserable night trapped in deplorable conditions inside the airport, deprived of access to food.
Faced with the intransigence of the Algerian authorities, the Moroccan team had no choice but to return home without participating in the international tournament. Moroccan sports experts and political analysts view this incident as the latest episode in the Algerian military regime’s strategy to create a new front for spreading hostility towards Morocco.
Read also: When Sport Becomes Collateral Victim of Algerian Regime’s Moroccan Obsession
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred. In April, Algerian authorities prevented the Moroccan football team RS Berkane from wearing their official jersey featuring a full map of Morocco, including its southern provinces, during the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-finals against the Algerian club USM Alger. The players were subjected to confiscation of their equipment, thorough searches for shirts with the map of Morocco, and police violence to expel them from the terminal.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) intervened, declaring RS Berkane as the winner of the abandoned match with a 3-0 score and affirming the legitimacy of the team’s jersey. CAF urged the Algerian football federation to release the confiscated equipment and apologized for the inconvenience caused to its sponsors, TV partners, and supporters.
Sports journalist Aziz Belboudali emphasized to Moroccan media that the Algerian regime has a history of using international sporting events to attack Morocco. He stated that subjecting Moroccan athletes to humiliating practices at Algerian airports, in contradiction to the spirit of fair sports competition, has become commonplace.
The affected athletes have announced their intention to file complaints with international sports federations to put an end to these incidents, which they assert have become routine in any sporting event organized in Algeria. Belboudali urged international federations to take action against the escalating harassment and provocation faced by Moroccan athletes participating in tournaments and competitions on Algerian soil.
