Friday, April 19, 2024 – 13:51
The football team delegation of Renaissance Berkane was surprised to be prevented from leaving Houari Boumediene Airport in the Algerian capital on Friday morning due to the official shirts of the “Orange Team,” which bear the complete map of the Kingdom of Morocco.
According to a well-informed source, the Algerian authorities seized the luggage of the Berkane team’s delegation upon arrival at the airport, in the presence of the club’s president, Abdelhakim Benabdellah, before deciding to inspect the players’ clothes.
The same source explained that the players of Renaissance Berkane faced unjustified harassment upon the arrival of the plane that transported them to Houari Boumediene Airport from Angad Oujda Airport, in a direct flight that lasted about an hour.
The same source pointed out that the Algerian customs administration refused to allow officials of Renaissance Berkane to leave the airport, informing them of the country’s officials’ refusal to allow the Berkane team to be present on Algerian territory wearing shirts bearing the map of Morocco, although the African Football Confederation had approved the shirt some time ago.
The newspaper source confirmed that the players of Renaissance Berkane are still being held at Houari Boumediene Airport as of the writing of these lines, after approximately an hour and a half of their arrival, awaiting the decision of the Algerian authorities.
Renaissance Berkane is preparing to play the first leg of the African Confederation Cup semi-final against the defending champion, USM Alger, on Sunday, April 21, at 8 p.m., while the second leg will take place at the Municipal Stadium in Berkane at the end of next week.
The Algerian authorities allowed the Berkane team to travel on a direct flight from Oujda to Algeria aboard a Spanish plane, whereas it was initially planned for the flight to be to Tunisia and then to Algeria, due to the closure of Algerian airspace to Moroccan aviation.
The incident recalls the detention of a Moroccan media delegation in Algeria, which accompanied the Moroccan delegation participating in the Mediterranean Games hosted by the country about two years ago.
