CHAN: Morocco 'ultimatum' still overshadowing tournament

Ivory Coast have been joyful in their success at CHAN so far

The 2022 African Nations Championship (CHAN) quarter-finals begin on Friday, and there are plenty of captivating storylines primed to unfold.

Hosts Algeria steamrolled through Group A and look like early favourites; Senegal have scores of young talent that seem ripe for European football; and debutants Madagascar have also secured a historic berth in the knockout stages.

But, the main story of the CHAN is still not about what happened on the pitch so much as the overall organisation of the tournament and its geopolitical implications.

Defending champions Morocco did not make it out to Algeria for the CHAN, pulling out on the eve of its starting citing logistical reasons after the team was denied permission to fly directly from Morocco to Algeria using their national airline.

And this row has overshadowed everything since.

Algeria unilaterally ruptured relations with neighbours Morocco in August 2021, for various geopolitical reasons, and have since also prohibited Moroccan aircraft from flying in Algerian airspace.

In December, Morocco football federation (FRMF) president Fouzi Lekjaa announced that unless the team could fly directly from Moroccan capital Rabat to Algerian city Constantine where they would be based, on board a Royal Air Maroc flight, the Atlas Lions would pull out.

Rachid Oukali, the president of the organising committee of the Chan (COCHAN), told BBC Sport Africa that his body received nothing directly from the Moroccan authorities and that the FRMF statement was ill-received.

“Initially, we, as a committee, and the Algerian authorities wanted to facilitate things for all participating nations,” Oukali explained.“After the statement, it became more of an ultimatum, and that’s when things became more difficult.”

“We would have liked to have them here for this Chan, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”

Political remarks

The CHAN opening ceremony doubled as the opening of the Nelson Mandela Stadium

In addition to Morocco’s non-participation, another source of controversy during the initial stages of the Chan was the opening ceremony at freshly inaugurated Nelson Mandela stadium in Algiers.

As the new stadium was named after the former South African freedom fighter, Algerian authorities decided to invite his grandson, Zwelivelile "Mandla” Mandela, to deliver remarks on behalf of the family.

However, Mandela ended up making explicitly political statements including, “Let us fight to free Western Sahara from oppression”, and “Free Palestine”.

The disputed territory in Northwest Africa has long been a source of tension between Algeria and Morocco and the latter were quick to file a letter to both CAF and Fifa, calling Mandela’s comments, “obviously premeditated and totally unacceptable. Oukali denies that Mandela’s comments were premeditated.

“The stadium is named after Nelson Mandela, so that is why we invited his grandson for the inauguration,” he told Sport Africa.

“We had nothing to do with his speech and he himself confirmed that. In fact, as he was preparing to descend onto the pitch to make his speech, he told his wife that he would be improvising, so no one knew what he would end up saying.” Oukali continued.

“As the president of the COCHAN, we wanted to stay in a footballing context, but couldn’t control what he was going to say."

Successful tournament?

Once the matches got underway Oukali is happy about the general success of the tournament thus far.

“Everything is going well, as expected,” he says.

“All of our guests agree that this seventh edition of the CHAN has been great. The fans have come out in numbers, even in cities like Annaba and Constantine where the home national team isn’t playing. In one match we had a record 30,000 supporters who showed up to watch a neutral fixture.”

For now, the Maghrebi kerfuffle seems to be forgotten but it promises to stretch into the following months as Morocco have qualified for the under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, which will also be hosted in Algeria this April.

The North African nations are also the two leading contenders to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations that was initially supposed to be held in Guinea.