Algeria’s regime uses sports as vehicle for Morocco-phobia, conspiracy theories
On the footsteps of their military-controlled regime, sports commentators in Algerian studios are increasingly invoking conspiracy theories to explain the failure of their national team to stand out in the African cup of nations, putting the blame as usual on Morocco.
From Ennahar to Echorouk to other mouthpieces of the military regime, commentators have drawn mockery across the Arab world at their obsessive use of conspiracy theories to put the blame on Morrocco for the failures of their national team to impress.
Algeria ended with two draws with Angola and Burkina Faso in the group stage of the African cup of nations in Côte D’ivoire.
Emulating their Morocco-obsessed political class, Algerian media explained their hard-won draw with Burkina Faso as a result of Moroccan influence in CAF!
Similar comments accusing Moroccan football officials without offering hard evidence led CAF to suspend Algerian coach Adil Amroch who was leading Tanzania’s national squad at the competition.
Tanzanian football federation distanced itself from the coach statements and replaced him ironically with a national coach named Hamed Morocco.
Amroch was not the first Algerian to leave the championship so early. Côte d’Ivoire authorities had already deported a famous Algerian influencer and regime propagandist Sofia Belamane after proffering racial slur at Africans.
The decision led many Algerian influencers and football fans to indulge in a spate of hateful speech against Africans.
As the economic and political crisis deepen in oil-dependent Algeria, the regime looks to sports to inflate a sort of national ego and distract the disenchanted youth from the dim economic prospects in the country where people are now used to queue for basic foodstuff while thousands venture to take the risky illegal migration routes to Europe at their own peril.
