It was supposed to be a match, transformed from the first scenes into a tragi-comic farce in several acts…
It’s a new kind of farce, between drama and burlesque, between dystopia and absurdism.
Act 1.
The Berkane Sports Renaissance arrives one fine morning at Algiers airport from Oujda to play the first leg of the semi-final of the African Football Confederation Cup against the defending champion, the club of Sports Union of the Medina of Algiers.
The flight was operated by the Spanish company Iberia in order to circumvent the restrictions caused by the closure of Algerian airspace to all Moroccan planes, inducing a Morocco-Tunisia journey on a RAM flight, then a Tunisia-Algeria flight on a the Tunisian company; what some prankster neighbors delicately call “making the roundabout”.
As in the strange case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the official Algerian communication displays the semblance of a good welcome reserved for the Moroccan delegation by means of a bouquet of scarlet roses wrapped in candy-colored tissue paper, before reveal the pot of roses.
President of the Moroccan club, players and technical staff, all are prohibited from leaving the premises with their official jerseys which were confiscated by customs agents.
The blockage would last more than ten hours at the airport, whose brand new director is none other than the very old colonel, an improvised presenter on Algerian television, sinisterly memorable for his appeal to the Polisario separatists, from the Algerian channel El Hayat , to commit terrorist operations in Moroccan cities.
To say that despite the theatrical illusion, we are no longer in sport, submerged, like everything else, by the control of the military regime.
The videos filter sparingly what looks like a closed door, with the unique setting of the airport in which the protagonists pray, eat, perform their exercises or try to close their eyes on a plastic seat or on the ground, before be joined by police officers.
– “You are turned away!” one of them thunders several times in good French.
– “You are not welcome on Algerian soil!” adds the other amidst different names coming from the melee.
To explain the reasons for this treatment, the intrusion of politics into sport was cited (according to the same people who invited Mandela’s grandson to make an anti-Morocco separatist speech in the middle of the opening ceremony of the CHAN 2023), and, several times, again against all logic, in fiery soliloquies, the violation of Algerian national sovereignty.
Even crazier, Abdelkader Bengrina, president of the El Bina political party, pushed the nonsense to the point of establishing a link with the Palestinian question.
We are in full absurdity as the words and events clash with logic and as the trial becomes Kafkaesque for a private delegation for hours of freedom of movement “without having done anything wrong” than wearing jerseys adorned with the sound card own country.
Does this country include territories claimed by Algeria as its own? No!
Is this not the same map that Algeria had to publish during the Arab Summit, further apologizing for the one previously truncated with the justification of an “error in its iconography department”? If!
So, how is this a matter of national sovereignty for Algeria, which claims not to be a party to the Sahara conflict, while refusing to participate in the round table process to which the UN invites it?
If the Polisario is also absent from the scene (as it is from the CAF!), the next evening, it was Ferhat Mehenni, president of the MAK, who was going to proclaim, in front of the UN headquarters in New York, the independence of Kabylia.
It reminds us all at once of the logic of the famous adage according to which “Whoever digs a hole for his brother ends up falling in it himself”; the inconsistency of the Algerian regime’s support for the right to self-determination for some while it is denied to others, while encouraging us to think that this incredible cinema was probably only aimed at creating a diversion to occupy media space.
A jersey as a smoke screen…
Act 2.
As the players return to their hotel following the intervention of the Confederation of African Football, the lawyers enter the scene.
Does the jersey violate any regulations? No!
In football alone, and to stay fair in Africa, several teams have chosen to wear a jersey flocked with the map of their country, such as those of Mauritania or Ivory Coast, notably during the last CAN, while the RS Berkane has been playing since the start of the tournament with this jersey approved according to the rules of the art.
When asked about the issue, the Interclub Competitions Committee also ordered the release of the said equipment, in compliance with the statutes and regulations, before rejecting the appeal filed by the Algerian authorities, more stubborn than ever.
You would think you were hearing Father Ubu: “And first of all, who are you to give orders?”
Algerian customs refuse to return the outfits.
For Moroccans, it is inconceivable to play without this official jersey.
The equation seems insoluble, short of a spectacular outcome.
The suspense reaches its climax…
Act 3.
Change of scenery. We are at the stadium, just a few minutes before the match kicks off.
The Moroccan players, who have since left the hotel, discover alternative jerseys in the locker room.
The president of the Algerian Football Federation, Walid Sadi, announces the provision of “high quality jerseys” to the Moroccan team, without the Moroccan map but with an imitation of the sponsor’s logo.
Deus ex machina! A counterfeit jersey emerging from a workshop!
We are no longer close to madness or illegality! Violations aplenty, from CAF and FIFA regulations to current contracts signed between sponsors and the club.
The Moroccans, who have every reason to refuse this counterfeit jersey, head to the field in their tracksuit.
Prevented from accessing the lawn as we clearly see in the videos, blocked as they were by a row of security agents, they later ended up turning back.
Another first: the Algerian team entered the field alone without the opposing team and without the refereeing staff.
In the stands, the crowd, stimulated by the cathartic effect of the improbable spectacle, waved Polisarian separatist flags printed in A4 format and released their passions and frustrations in unison.
As during the Chan, there is still talk of Moroccans, animals and bananas, in addition to other joys aimed at their “bête noire”, the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation.
The match between RS Berkane and USM Alger will not take place.
Epilogue.
A few days after these events, the official decisions naturally came down.
In the art of picking up its sleeves, the Algerian regime preferred, once again, to become the laughing stock of the world and sacrifice, one by one, the interests of the country; there, in this case, those of one of its greatest teams.
On the one hand, the Moroccan club’s sports equipment supplier announces its intention to file a complaint with the FIFA ethics committee, following the counterfeiting of its jerseys; on the other, the African Football Confederation sanctioned, the day before, the USMA Club with a 0-3 forfeit, while declaring to submit the case to the disciplinary jury for possible additional sanctions, as well as the maintenance of the return match at Berkane municipal stadium.
While waiting for the rest of the series which promises to be ubiquitous, I bow out and conclude as usual for the occasion: “Valete and plaudite!“.
Be well and applaud!
