Algeria: a staff member steals... a ball

The Wednesday match had an unexpected epilogue, far from the playing field. At the final whistle, the officials of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) noticed the disappearance of two of the fifteen official balls allocated to the match. An anomaly that immediately triggered a verification of the security procedures to guarantee the integrity of the equipment of the tournament organized in Morocco.

The answer came quickly thanks to the stadium’s video surveillance system. The examination of the images made it possible to identify the author of the theft: a member of the technical staff of the Algerian national team. The camera filmed him in the act during half-time, hiding one of the balls under his clothes before leaving the field. While this first ball could be located, the second remains untraceable for the moment, forcing the organizers to continue their investigations.

Faced with this irrefutable evidence, the CAF coordinator went directly to the Algerian dressing room to settle the incident. After an initial attempt at denial by the staff, the presentation of the surveillance images put an end to any dispute. The ball was finally returned to the officials. On social networks, the dissemination of the information has provoked strong reactions, with many observers describing the act as "amateurish" and unworthy of a competition of this magnitude.