The Confederation of African Football (CAF) ended the controversy over the USM Alger match against Morocco’s Nahda Berkane, allowing the Moroccan team to wear its official shirt containing a map of Morocco.
CAF asked the Algerian authorities to release the shirts of Nahda Berkane, stressing that the official shirt of the Moroccan team meets all the conditions required by the African Union, and the team played all its matches in the competition.
The crisis erupted last Friday with the arrival of Nahdet Berkane’s delegation to Houari Boumediene airport in Algeria in preparation for the CAF Confederation Cup semi-final clash, where Algerian authorities refused to allow the team to take out their equipment due to a map of Morocco that includes Western Sahara territory on the Nahda Berkane shirt.
The Moroccan team was detained for nearly five hours upon arrival, due to what Algerian authorities described as a “provocative way” of entering the team with T-shirts with a map of Morocco with Western Sahara.
Relations between the two countries have been strained for decades over Algeria’s support for the Polisario Front, which demands independence for Western Sahara, while Morocco considers it an integral part of its territory and proposes granting it autonomy under its sovereignty.
A delegation from the US Congress visits Morocco