Reportage
CHAN 2023: in Algiers, the overflowing passion for the city's football clubs
Audio 03:32
In the Belcourt district of Algiers, the heroes of independence and CR Belouizdad football are displayed in large murals.
© Thomas de Saint-Leger
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
The first quarter-final of CHAN will oppose this Friday, January 27 at 4 p.m. UT the host country to Côte d'Ivoire.
All seats are already sold.
No wonder: in Algeria, football is a second religion.
In Algiers, in addition to the national team, we necessarily support one of the many clubs that cohabit and sometimes compete in fiery derbies.
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With our special correspondent in Algiers,
Thomas de Saint-Léger
“
Each district loves a club, from birth to death
”, immediately asks Achar, a supporter of Belouizdad.
In Belcourt, a popular district in the center of Algiers where he lives, it is impossible to go wrong: from the walls to the cafes, everything is red and white, the colors of CR Belouizdad.
Achar, he has the CRB in his heart and in his pocket.
“
And
here is the symbol of the CRB which does not leave me
, he says, showing off his key ring in the colors of the club.
It was offered to me by the management of CRB, in the colors of the club.
CRB and the Belcourt district, it's a team, that's the charm of the district
.
»
A district whose heroes of independence, football, sometimes both, are displayed in large numbers on countless murals.
Hacène Lalmas, charismatic striker from the 60s, is everywhere here.
In the country where football is a second religion, the glories of the round ball are demi-gods.
A rivalry “like PSG-Marseille”
A passion that crosses generations.
They are barely out of their teens, but Salah Eddine and his friends already know their classic.
"
There are a lot of songs like the one where CR Belouizdad fans
insult those of Usma Alger
", explains the young supporter who does not hesitate to sing the song he evokes.
The rivalry between Belouizdad and Usma, but also Mouloudia, is "like PSG-Marseille", launches a friend of Salah Eddine.
Neighbors and rivals, the clubs of Algiers are as numerous as the districts of the immense capital.
Six of them have already won the national championship, four are still playing in the First Division, not to mention all the others.
Yazid Wahib, journalist and memory of Algerian sport, remembers a time when football was still a game. “
In 1972, this café where we are was used as a sports club.
I played in a club of this district, the CRVK
,
club of lower division.
I was a junior.
We came to meet in this
cafe
, we were published the convocation, the selection, in this cafe, on a window.
That was the sports club
.
»
Mouloudia, the biggest?
It was also a different era.
Many years later, professionalism has passed through there and of the many clubs in Algiers, only the most solid have built up a real track record.
In the lead, CR Belouizdad, nine champion crowns, soon ten, if the Reds and Whites, current leaders of the classification, chain a 4th title in a row.
But when you ask the annoying question: what is the biggest club in Algiers?
Yazid Wahib takes the opposite view.
“
It's the Mouloudia of Algiers, the
MCA.
A good part of Algiers is Mouloudia
, says the journalist.
And you go to southern Algeria, you will find Mouloudia supporters, in the east, in the west.
Moreover, take the list of clubs, all divisions combined, an acronym or a name will come up quite often, that of Mouloudia.
It comes from al-Mawlid
or
Maouloud, birth of the prophet Mohammed.
You have Mouloudia from Constantine, Mouloudia from Oran, Saïda, Béjaïa, etc.
I'm not a Mouloudia supporter, but for me, Mouloudia is the biggest club
.
»
Mouloudia soon opposed Belouizdad in the next big Algiers derby.
Hot match scheduled for early spring.
CHAN 2023: schedule and results of the African Nations Football Championship
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CHAN 2023
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