Adidas Faces Backlash Over Algeria’s New Soccer Jersey Design

Far from subsiding, the debate on the new Algerian jersey unveiled on September 23 by Adidas is gaining momentum. The Moroccan Ministry of Culture has put Adidas on notice to "withdraw from the market the new jersey of the Algerian national team", considering that the patterns on the jersey, inspired "by a traditional Moroccan ceramic art, the zellige, are a cultural appropriation of Morocco".

"Mandated by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Communication @mjcc_gov, I have sent a first formal notice to the legal representative of the group @adidas to request the withdrawal of the collection of sports jerseys inspired by the art of Moroccan zellige," said Me Mourad Elajouti, president of the Moroccan Lawyers Club, in a tweet. The lawyer at the Casablanca bar has given Adidas a 15-day deadline to remove the jersey from its website, recalls Arabnews.

On social networks, Algerian Internet users defend the universality of this cultural heritage, stressing that the zellige is an Andalusian Islamic art that can be found in all the countries of the Maghreb and in Spain. "We find it in Al Mansuriya in Tunisia up to Marrakech in Morocco, passing through Tlemcen. They are also found in the Nasrid palaces in Granada and in several cities in Andalusia," explains one of them.

"The original design of the Algerian national team training jersey is inspired by the Zelidj of the Zianide Royal Palace, El Mechouar de Tlemcen. Built by the Algerian Zianid dynasty in 1248," adds another. For others, this debate is both sterile and useless. "As a Moroccan, I will buy it as a sign of brotherhood... There are many more things that unite us than things that divide us," assures an Algerian Internet user.