CHAN 2023: Morocco ‘ultimatum’ still overshadowing tournament

2022 African Nations Championship (CHAN) quarter-finals begin on Friday, and there are plenty of captivating storylines primed to unfold.

Hosts Algeria steamrolled through Group A and look like early favourites; Senegal have scores of young talent that seem ripe for European football; and debutants Madagascar have also secured a historic berth in the knockout stages.

But, the main story of the CHAN is still not about what happened on the pitch so much as the overall organisation of the tournament and its geopolitical implications.

Defending champions Morocco did not make it out to Algeria for the CHAN, pulling out on the eve of its starting citing logistical reasons after the team was denied permission to fly directly from Morocco to Algeria using their national airline.

And this row has overshadowed everything since.

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Algeria unilaterally ruptured relations with neighbours Morocco in August 2021, for various geopolitical reasons, and have since also prohibited Moroccan aircraft from flying in Algerian airspace.

In December, Morocco football federation (FRMF) president Fouzi Lekjaa announced that unless the team could fly directly from Moroccan capital Rabat to Algerian city Constantine where they would be based, on board a Royal Air Maroc flight, the Atlas Lions would pull out.

Rachid Oukali, the president of the organising committee of the Chan (COCHAN), told BBC Sport Africa that his body received nothing directly from the Moroccan authorities and that the FRMF statement was ill-received.