For seniors, we will wait a little longer, but the meetings between the U18s of France and Algeria on Saturday 9 and Tuesday 12 October are a first step.

The North African federation announced the event on Sunday, September 26.

It will serve as a preparation for the Mediterranean Games of Oran 2022.

According to the press release of the Algerian Football Federation (FAF), "these two meetings come to concretize the work of rapprochement and cooperation between the National Technical Directorate (DTN) of the Algerian Football Federation and its counterpart of the French Football Federation ( FFF) ".

Both matches will take place at Clairefontaine and will be subject to the strict health protocol established by UEFA.

The two selections will remain in a sanitary bubble, whether for travel, accommodation, or catering;

and will be subject to daily testing.

The day before, the Algerian federation had also announced the first participation of the U20s since 1984 in the prestigious Toulon tournament in May 2022.

When will France-Algeria be among the seniors?

Two good news which could be the sign of a gradual rapprochement between the two federations and which could, in the long term, lead to a friendly France-Algeria match, a symbolic meeting regularly mentioned by the authorities.

World champions against African champions.

A match between France and Algeria has everything of a dream poster for football fans, in addition to being a symbol in view of the tumultuous history of the two countries.

The only confrontation between France and Algeria took place in 2001, at the Stade de France, with a large victory for the Blues (4-1).

Beyond the score - anecdotal -, this match is regularly singled out as one of the greatest fiascos in French sport and a revealer of the questions of French identity: at the time, the meeting was interrupted at a quarter of hour of the end because of an invasion of the lawn by young supporters.

The Marseillaise had also been whistled.

In June 2021, the president of the FFF, Noël Le Graët, spoke on the subject and regretted that the discussions with Algeria for the organization of a friendly match against the France team were so complicated:

“It's not France, it's Algeria… Because I want to go there.

Play the game here, we can do it, they would come.

But I would like to go there because it's been fifty years after all ... It's the only country in the world that you can't meet ", he argued, explaining that he had raised the subject with Fifa . "It's the policy that prevents me from doing it."

In the meantime, a possible appeasement between the two countries, it will be necessary to be satisfied with clashes between the young Fennecs and the young Roosters.

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