In its first response to the request by the Moroccan Football Federation to allow its local football club to travel directly from the Moroccan capital Rabat to Constantine in Algeria or else it will withdraw from the tournament, Algeria said it was not bound by the provisions of the Football Federation’s law African “K”.
Algeria will host the African Local Club Football Championship from 13 January to 4 February 2023, while an Algerian football official indicated that all teams have sent a list of delegations soon to arrive in Algeria, and no team has told the ‘Algeria his absence from the tournament.
The Moroccan Football Federation, condition That Algeria allows the Moroccan plane carrying the team’s players to enter Algeria directly, while the airspace between the two neighboring countries is closed due to a previous Algerian decision following the breakdown of relations between them.
The head of the Algerian organizing committee, Rachid Okali, said that no country had notified the organization on which it relies its absence from the session, stressing that the organizing country is not obliged to guarantee the movement of participating teams from abroad.
Okali added during a press conference that African Union regulations do not oblige the host of the tournament to ensure the movement of participating teams from abroad, and said, “We are only obligated to ensure the movement of teams internally between the states”.
He went on to say: “All delegations have sent lists of players who will participate and we have no official document proving the absence of any team,” indicating that his committee had not received any notification from the Moroccan side of his team’s absence. . from the tournament.
He then went on to point out that the Ugandan team was the only one to issue a statement about his absence before confirming his participation, indicating that he deliberately announced his absence to force local authorities to sponsor his players’ away trips. no one said he would be absent,” Okali confirms.
These statements come in the light of successive tensions between Algeria and the Moroccan monarchy, which led to the severing of relations between them with a unilateral decision by Algeria, followed by the closure of its airspace to all Moroccan civilian and military aircraft in 2021.
Interestingly, during the meeting of members of the Moroccan Football Federation on Tuesday, the head of the authority, Faouzi Lakjaa, mentioned the decision of the management office in his recent meetings with the participation of the national team for under-23 , in the Championship for local players which will be hosted by Algeria, where reference was made to Morocco’s correspondence with the federation. The African Football Federation on meeting the terms of the campaign book to host the African Championships, according to declaration issued by the university.
And the release states that the Moroccan Football Authority “has requested that the national team travel to the city of Constantine, which will host the matches of the Moroccan elite in this tournament, via a direct flight from the city of Rabat and by means of a private plane of Royal Moroccan Airlines, the official carrier of the national teams, and in case of refusal, the management unanimously decided not to participate in this tournament.
