Supporters of the Mouloudia Club d’Alger (MCA), one of the star teams in Algerian football, have given up on celebrating the club’s next centenary in order to donate the money to provide oxygen cylinders to Covid-19 patients.
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“This centenary will be that of the ‘Mouloudia of oxygen’ through a great solidarity action“, Deputy Chairman of the MCA National Supporters Committee Hamid Atmani told AFP on Sunday.
During a recent preparatory meeting for this anniversary, the Algerian supporters decided, given the scale of the health crisis in Algeria, to give priority to the sick by offering them a maximum of oxygen cylinders, and possibly medicines, Mr. Atmani said.
They chose to donate the sums collected individually by the ultras and the benefactors of the club for the anniversary “for the benefit of Covid patients before August 7“, the date of the centenary of the MCA.
Since Thursday, the internet pages of supporters of the MCA – the oldest club of Algeria, born in 1921 – have echoed this initiative.
The money that was to be used for the party will be used to purchase oxygen concentrators, the Facebook page promises “100% Mouloudia“, which brings together more than 200,000 subscribers who are fans of the Greens and Reds.
It will be “the most wonderful centennial club celebration in the world. These are the values and principles of our team since its creation 100 years ago“, according to a post.
Created on August 7, 1921, during the colonial era, and based in Bal El Oued, a working-class district of Algiers, the Mouloudia is nicknamed “the people’s club“. It is one of the most successful teams in the Algerian professional championship.
“To celebrate the centenary while the Algerian people are going through a dramatic situation would be shameful and would stigmatize the supporters of our club“, we read again in this post.
Each year, the mouloudistes celebrate the anniversary of their club with a cracking of smoke and fireworks in Bab El Oued.
Algeria is facing a third wave of Covid-19, which results in a shortage of oxygen for individuals and some hospitals due to problems with inventory management and distribution.
Almost everywhere, volunteers have started to organize themselves to relieve the sick. Some entrepreneurs distribute oxygen cylinders free of charge.
Faced with urgent demand, Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane has promised to import more than 160,000 liters of oxygen as well as ten production units with a capacity of 20,000 to 40,000 liters per day.
Algeria must also bring thousands of oxygen concentrators to the country.
