Algerian players make a stopover... at Royal Air Maroc

The scene took place on the tarmac of Rabat-Salé airport. To get to Marrakech, where their adventure in this CAN will continue, the Fennecs boarded a RAM aircraft. Although, according to several sources, the Algerian official media took care not to frame or blur the company’s red-windowed logo, the logistical reality is undeniable: it is indeed the Moroccan flag that transported its neighbors.

This situation stems from the strategic partnership between RAM and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), making the company the official carrier of the competition. Morocco, by providing this transportation without distinction, applies what observers describe as a "big league logic": a professional and flexible management that places the sports organization above political differences.

A recurring scenario

This is not the first time that Moroccan pragmatism has clashed with Algerian dogmatism. History is repeating itself, recalling a similar episode that occurred in July 2025 during the Women’s CAN.

At the time, the women’s teams of Algeria and Senegal had also been transported from Casablanca to Oujda by Royal Air Maroc. The context was identical: an official boycott, a closure of airspace, and a media blackout in Algeria on the location of the competition. Yet, on the ground, the Moroccan logistics had ensured the transfer of the delegations to Berkane and Oujda without any problems.

Today, as in the past, the reality on the ground and the commitments of CAF impose a parenthesis of normality: Algerian players travel thanks to Moroccan expertise, far from the rhetoric of rupture.