The USM Algiers-Renaissance Berkane affair is close to the outcome. After a long legal battle between all parties closely involved (USMA, FAF, Berkane, FRMF, CAF), the Court of Arbitration for Sport, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, invited, last Tuesday, all parties concerned by this case to a videoconference hearing before making a definitive ruling on which he has been dealing with for many months. The arbitration panel to which this case has been entrusted will now have to deliver its verdict.
As a reminder, the starting point of this is the decision of the Moroccan club to play the semi-final (round trip) of the Confederation Cup (last edition) with a jersey on which a political message was written. The statutes of CAF and FIFA as well as the regulations of the indicated competition prohibit it.
On this basis, the Algerian party (USMA and FAF) contacted the CAF on this serious violation of the statutes and regulations. The home and away matches did not take place and the Confederation gave the Algerian club lost matches. On Tuesday, the Algerian and Moroccan parties and the CAF, in the presence of their lawyers, presented their arguments.
The CAF lawyer, who is also that of FIFA, argued in favor of “the inadmissibility of the complaint of the two Algerian parties”. Their lawyers, through legal and regulatory arguments, stressed that the complaint was fully admissible from the moment that the criteria and conditions which nullify the inadmissibility were met in both substance and form. . The CAF defender argued: “Why did the USMA and the FAF denounce Berkane’s wearing of the jersey? It doesn’t concern them.” The lawyers of the two Algerian parties dismantled the arguments put forward by the CAF lawyer. He forgot that there is an article in the FIFA statutes which requires all officials, including the USMA and the FAF, to alert FIFA when a party does not respect the regulations. If she does not do so, she (a party) faces a 2-year suspension and a heavy financial penalty.
The Moroccan club, with the complicity of its federation and especially CAF, made a serious mistake by wanting to play against USMA with a jersey containing a political message. The Moroccan federation and the Berkane club focused their pleadings on political intervention. To which the lawyers of the two Algerian parties responded in great detail, namely that it was Berkane who played politics by refusing to play without the jersey of discord.
A lawyer for the Algerian side replied: “A match can be played without a jersey that does not include a political slogan. Why did Berkane refuse to play with a neutral jersey as required by the regulations? Following suit, the representative of the FAF clarified: “In concert with the match commissioner and with his agreement, in accordance with the regulations we prepared neutral equipment, as recommended in the texts, we handed over the equipment to Berkane , in accordance with the instructions of the match commissioner (all documents were recorded in the memorandum sent to the CAS.”
The CAS arbitration panel took note of everything that was said by all parties. The final and binding verdict will not be pronounced for several days, if not weeks.
