Sinan Rajub SENOGA
Defending champions Morocco are set to miss the upcoming Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament which is slated to kick off on January 13th in Algeria.
The Moroccan FA has threatened to pull out of the tournament if Algeria doesn’t allow the Moroccan contingent to have a direct flight from Morocco to Constantine which is the host city for their group games.
Both countries are neighbours but have had a sour relationship in the recent past that saw Algeria place a ban on flights from Morocco.
Therefore, the Morocco team is subjected to an eight hour flight via Tunisia instead of flying directly to Algeria.
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Following a Moroccan FA Executive board meeting, the FA President Faouzi Lekjaa confirmed that if they are not allowed to fly directly to the city of Constantine, they will pull out of the upcoming tournament.
For a start, in 2021 Algeria cut relations with Morocco accusing them for attempts to destabilize their country and particularly accused the city of Rabat for playing a part in the wildfires that engulfed Algeria that year.
Morocco are the back to back champions of the CHAN tournament having beaten Mali and Nigeria in the 2020 and 2018 editions respectively.
The Atlas Lions are pitted in Group C of the upcoming tournament alongside Sudan, Madagascar and Ghana.
