For them the party was cut short. Started in the stands of the stadiums, the African Football Cup of Nations ended in Moroccan prisons for certain Algerian supporters. Far from the festivities and popular jubilation that accompany qualification for the final of the Atlas Lions tournament.
According to Moroccan media at least two Fennecs supporters were arrested by the authorities last Saturday on the sidelines of their team’s lost match (0-2) against Nigeria during the CAN quarter-finals. An end of the game marked by numerous excesses. They were placed in pre-trial detention on Wednesday January 14 at the Oudayas remand center.
The first will be judged for “willful destruction of monetary signs”, the other, born in Algeria to a Moroccan father and an Algerian mother, for “theft of wireless communication equipment such as a walkie-talkie”.
According to local media “this device was used by the teams responsible for security and coordination in the stadium”. “Its subtraction was considered a direct attack on the organizational system, calling into question respect for common rules and collective security. »
These cases have caused controversy and reignited tensions between the two neighboring countries whose stormy diplomatic relations led to the closure of the land border in 1994 and the respective airspaces in 2021.
