Algeria Considers Leaving African Football for Asian Confederation Amid CAF Tensions

The information is reported by the Algerian sports journalist, Moumen Ait-Kaci. "The Algerian Football Federation should study the possibility of applying for membership in the Asian Football Confederation, as Australia has done. Thus, our national team and our clubs will play their various competitions on the Asian continent. This project would be studied soon, if the CAF scandals against Algeria and our clubs persist," he wrote on his social networks.

The Algerian Football Federation has repeatedly mentioned the existence of an anti-Algeria lobby within the CAF, which it claims is maintained by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation and its president, Fouzi Lekjaa. Algeria accuses Morocco of having worked to prevent it from sitting on the CAF Executive Committee and of having weighed in on the designation of the host country for the 2025 CAN.

For the Algerian authorities, Morocco would also be behind the sanction imposed on Adel Amrouche, the former coach of the Tanzanian national team, who, during a pre-match press conference against the Atlas Lions in the group stage of the 2023 CAN in Côte d’Ivoire, accused Morocco of buying CAF referees. The Algerian technician had been sentenced to 8 matches of suspension and a fine without being heard, they denounce.

The Algerian Federation also blames the CAF, in collusion with the Moroccan Federation, for having authorized the Renaissance sportive de Berkane to play with its jerseys stamped with a complete map of Morocco including the Sahara, during the CAF Cup, which led USM Alger to boycott the semi-final matches of the competition. For all these reasons, Algeria could leave the CAF and apply for membership in the Asian Football Confederation, estimates the Algerian sports journalist. But could such an initiative succeed?