The soap opera of Morocco's participation in CHAN in Algeria continues.

According to an announcement from the Moroccan Foreign Ministry on Thursday (January 13th), the Atlas Lions will finally take part in the African Nations Football Championship in Algeria.

The federation had however announced earlier in the day the cancellation of its participation due to the closure of Algerian airspace to Moroccan planes.

"The Moroccan national team will travel to Algeria tomorrow to participate in CHAN," the ministry told AFP on Thursday evening.

"The departure will be from Salé airport (near Rabat) from 9:00 a.m. (08:00 GMT)" on Friday. 

Thursday morning, the Moroccan Federation (FRMF) announced the cancellation of its team's participation in CHAN because "the final authorization of its Royal Air Maroc (RAM) flight, official carrier of the Moroccan football teams, from Rabat to Constantine has not been confirmed" by Algeria, host country of the competition.

Questioned in the evening, the FRMF said "still waiting for a flight authorization".

"We haven't received anything yet"

"We haven't received anything at the moment. The players are training and we will go as soon as our flight is authorized," Mohamed Makrouf, adviser to the president of the Moroccan federation, Fouzi Lekjaa, told AFP.

"We are awaiting this authorization from the CAF (African Football Confederation) which must receive it from the Algerian authorities."

The CAF had informed the FRMF on December 22 that "authorization in principle had been obtained", according to the press release.

It was not possible to obtain confirmation from the Algerian authorities.

During its pre-competition press conference, CAF had almost seemed to acknowledge the withdrawal of its defending champion while carefully choosing its words according to our colleagues from RFI: “We have seen the press release from the Moroccan Federation. what we can say is that the countries are sovereign and that we have a responsibility, recalls Patrice Motsepe.We have tried in recent days to speak with each party (…) The complications were there before I became president (…) "Politics must not get involved in football, and our commitment is to promote football. This tournament will be played and will continue and decisions will be made according to the rules that govern CAF."

>> To read on RFI: CAF takes note of the withdrawal of Morocco, double defending champion

The CHAN, twin than the CAN which is reserved for players competing in the national championships, will be held from January 13 to February 4 in Algeria.

The objective of this tournament created in 2009 is to give greater visibility to local players and to strengthen the development of football on the continent.

Algiers closed its airspace on September 22, 2021 to all Moroccan civil and military aircraft after breaking diplomatic relations with Rabat.

This serious crisis is fueled by the thorny issue of Western Sahara, in a context of permanent tensions between the two enemy brothers.

The Atlas Lions have won the last two CHANs, in 2021 and 2018 with their pool of local players.

The performance of its national team at the World Cup with a historic 4th place for an African nation and the victory of Wydad Casablanca in the African Champions League once again made Moroccans serious contenders for final victory. 

With AFP

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