This Tuesday, November 26, two Moroccan clubs face each other for the first time in the history of the CAF Champions League. Raja of Casablanca and AS FAR of Rabat thus open the group stage of the flagship interclub competition of the Confederation of African Football.
A fratricidal duel which could be overshadowed by an extra-sporting affair involving Yousri Bouzok, the Algerian star of the Greens. According to sources close to the Casablanca club, the latter asked its management not to play the match. The former Paradou AC player would have justified his request by the presence of the full map of Morocco on the jersey dedicated to the competition, fearing possible reprisals from the Algerian authorities upon his return to the country.
At the time of writing, Raja has not yet published the list of players called up for this match.
This is not the first time that Algerian players playing in Botola have refused to play matches for similar reasons. Last season, a player from Olympique de Safi and two others from Ittihad de Tanger made a comparable decision.
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These situations echo the affair of political interference which shook African football last season, known as the “RS Berkane jersey”.
The Oriental club’s tunic, also displaying the full map of Morocco, led to the withdrawal of the Algiers Medina Sports Union (USMA) during the semi-final of the African Football Confederation Cup (CAF). This event, widely exploited by the Algerian authorities, took the meeting beyond its purely sporting framework. Neither of the two matches, home and away, had been disputed, the Algerian players having refused to play on orders from the junta.
As a reminder, CAF had validated the RSB jersey and imposed a fine of $40,000 on the Algerian club.
Another verdict is expected from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), based in Lausanne, which heard the parties concerned (CAF, RSB, USMA) on November 12.
