Morocco is the first team to win two consecutive African Nations Championship for locals
The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (Football Federation in Morocco) has announced it will withdraw from the upcoming African Nations Championship in Algeria unless the team is allowed to travel directly from the Moroccan capital Rabat to Constantine in Algeria.
This announcement comes in light of tensions between the two neighboring countries in North Africa, which led to Algeria’s decision to close its airspace to all Moroccan civilian and military aircraft in 2021.
The Moroccan Football Federation insisted the Atlas Lions, who made history in the 2022 Qatar World Cup when they became the first African country to reach the semi-finals of the tournament, would not participate unless they travel directly from Morocco to Algeria and arrived by air plane in the city of Constantine, which will attend their matches in the 2022 round. The groups, aboard the Royal Moroccan Air Force.
The draw for the tournament, which features only players from local African leagues, took place on Tuesday, with the Moroccan national team entering Group C against Madagascar, Sudan and Ghana, who eliminated Nigeria in qualifying.
Faouzi Lakjaa, president of the Moroccan Football Federation, chaired the executive council meeting on Tuesday evening and decided to issue an ultimatum to withdraw if Algeria does not allow direct travel on Royal Air Maroc.
The Moroccan federation said, in a press release, that it had sent a letter to the African Union regarding “compliance with the terms to host the African Championships, especially with regards to facilitating the conditions of the participating teams”.
The statement added that it had asked the national team to travel to the city of Constantine, which will host matches of the Moroccan elite in this tournament, via a direct flight, “from the city of Rabat and by means of a Royal Air Maroc private plane, the official carrier of the national teams”.
And the statement noted that: “In the event that this is refused, the Management Office has unanimously decided not to participate in this tournament.”
The federation decided to enter the tournament with an under-23 team, instead of the local team which won the title in the last two versions in 2018 at home and 2020 in Cameroon, and became the first nation to win the tournament twice in a row.
The first match of the seventh edition will see Algeria take on Libya in Group A on 13 January, while Morocco prepare to take on Sudan two days later.
The African Nations Championship draw:
Group A: Algeria, Libya, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
Group B: Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Senegal.
Group C: Morocco, Sudan, Madagascar, Ghana.
Group D: Mali, Angola and Mauritania.
Group E: Cameroon, Congo and Niger.
