Football sparked new tension between Morocco and Algeria, to be added to other hot files that widened the gap between the two neighboring countries. The dispute erupted after the Moroccans stipulated a direct air route for the local team to participate in the African Championship hosted by Algeria, which was rejected.
On Thursday, the Moroccan Football Federation announced that it would not participate in the African Nations Championship for local players, “Al-Shan”, after the Algerian authorities refused to authorize a direct flight between the two countries to transport the Moroccan national team players. The reason is that Algeria decided last year to close its airspace to Moroccan planes, in light of the diplomatic tension between the two countries.
Everything turned out to be a source of contention
The former Algerian diplomat, Mohamed Larbi Zitout, comments to Al-Hurra that, “Unfortunately, everything has turned into disagreements and conflicts, and it has also become an attempt to push many Moroccans and Algerians to quarrels and to exchange insults through social media.”
The former diplomat does not exclude the media in the two countries “from pouring oil on the fire,” and continues, “There are official channels, television, and the press that exchange insults and accusations, and this creates tension between the two peoples, even if many Moroccans and Algerians consider that the dispute is between two regimes, not between two peoples.”
Morocco’s announcement comes one day before the start of this tournament in the Algerian city of Constantine. The Moroccan national team was the winner in the last edition of this tournament, in which only players who compete in the leagues of their home countries can participate.
In Algeria, they consider their neighbors to have “boycotted” this tournament and criticize Morocco’s condition for its participation by choosing to fly directly from Rabat to Constantine. According to Algerian media, the tender specifications for the matter do not oblige the host country to issue permits for direct flights.
Algeria believes that Rabat wanted to circumvent the current restrictions on Moroccan aircraft in Algerian airspace.
Moroccan constitutional science professor Rachid Lazraq said in an interview with Al-Hurra that the African Confederation “is the one that organizes the tournament, while Algeria is the host country, so it must facilitate the movement of the participating teams.”
However, the Algerian journalist and analyst, Hakim Bougrara, believes that the issue is between Morocco and the Confederation of African Football, because the latter is the official sponsor of the event.
Bougrara is surprised how Morocco attended the Mediterranean Games last June without addressing the problem of the direct air route.
The Algerian analyst predicts that such matters will “further deepen the differences.”
On Thursday, the Moroccan Football Federation (the Royal Moroccan University) announced that its national team would not participate in the African Nations Championship for locals in Algeria (Al-Shaan).
“The national team was unable to travel to the city of Constantine (…) to defend its title, which it won in the last two rounds,” the federation said in a statement on its official website.
He added that “while the national team was preparing to head to the city of Constantine on January 10, 2023 to participate in this continental championship, which will start on January 13, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, unfortunately, did not obtain the final license” to travel to Algeria via Royal Moroccan Airlines.
Rachid Lazraq believes that the issue is a test of the strength of the two countries in the African field, and he regrets in his interview with the “Al-Hurra” website that sports were “hoped to be an area to bring the two peoples closer”, but “it seems that the intensity of the conflict diverts the capabilities that Morocco and Algeria have from elements that can be To contribute to building a great Morocco in accordance with the aspirations of the two peoples for progress and advancement from the element of weakening and dismantling,” as he put it.
The Algerian analyst, Hakim Bougrara, told Al-Hurra that “Moroccan-Algerian relations have deteriorated with every occasion or demonstration.”
The tournament for local players will be held from January 13th to February 4th in Algeria. Morocco fell into a third group that includes Sudan, Madagascar and Ghana. He is the title holder for the last two editions, in 2018 at home and 2020 in Cameroon.
Algeria closed its airspace on September 22, 2021 to all Moroccan civil and military aircraft, after severing diplomatic relations with Rabat, accusing the latter of “committing hostile acts.”
While Morocco expressed regret over this decision, and rejected the “false justifications”, noting that the two countries’ relations have been strained for decades due to the dispute over Western Sahara.
