While the Moroccan U17 team has not announced that it is withdrawing from the African Cup of Nations, to be held in Algeria next month, a member of the Egyptian Football Association is already seeking to take its place to participate in the place of Morocco.
It didn’t take much for the Egyptian team to eye Morocco’s place in the U17 CAN. The complicated situation of young Moroccan players is a godsend for some.
“If Morocco renounces its participation in the Nations Cup, the Egyptian national team is ready to take its place in this tournament,” Ehab Elkomy, member of the board of directors of the Egyptian Association of Football, told the press. soccer.
Egypt was eliminated during the qualifying phase for the CAN, but would like to take the place of Morocco which deserved its qualification. The Egyptian official, to avoid making statements that would backfire, did not want to answer questions asking him why he thought Morocco would not participate in the CAN or why he thought Morocco would boycott.
He only said that the Egyptian team could achieve good results in this competition because they have good players.
While Morocco, the two-time defending champion, was deprived of participation in the 2023 edition of the African Nations Championship for Local Players (CHAN) because Algeria banned the opening of its airspace to the Moroccan plane because of its diplomatic crisis with the Kingdom, the scenario risks repeating itself for the CAN U17.
The Moroccan national team will once again have to go to Algeria, the country organizing the competition for this edition, and risks being confronted with the same observation. Present in group B, he will play against Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia, during this competition scheduled from April 29 to May 19 in the cities of Algiers, Constantine and Annaba.
The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) had seized the African Football Confederation (CAF) for justice for having been prevented from going to CHAN, but the latter did not want to take sanctions against Algeria, which created other precedents during this competition, such as the invitation of Nelson Mandela’s grandson to give a political speech attacking the territorial integrity of Morocco in his absence, and racist cries and insults uttered against the Moroccan people by the public Algerian.
It was also in Algeria that Algerian players from the U17 team attacked Moroccan players at the end of the Arab Cup final match in September 2022. And also in Algeria where Wydad’s technical team was relieved of its video equipment and where Algerian officials preferred to lower the Algerian flag rather than hoist the Moroccan flag.
All these abnormal and unacceptable things should be subject to harsh sanctions against the Algerian Football Federation and deprive Algeria of organizing any competition because of these unsporting behaviors.
In any case, the president of the FRMF, Fouzi Lekjaa, recalled that the official carrier of the national teams of Morocco is the Royal Air Maroc (RAM) and appealed against the decision of the CAF which did not designate any culprit. for the CHAN, in anticipation of the CAN U17 which will know exactly the same blocking of Algeria.