Algeria refuses to participate in a tournament organized by Morocco in "disputed" regions ... Handball creates a new war between the two neighbors.

 Algeria refuses to participate in a tournament organized by Morocco in "disputed" regions ... Handball creates a new war between the two neighbors.

The crisis of the African Handball Championship came to complement the recurrent conflict between Morocco and Algeria since the War of the Sands, which took place in 1963, as the situation between the two neighbors calmed down and flared up again, casting its shadow over politics and the economy at times, and on culture and sport at other times.

The new stage of tension between the two neighbors came this time with a sporty character after Algeria refused to organize the African Handball Championship for adults next year (2022) in the city of Guelmim and Laayoune, especially since the latter is located within the disputed areas in the Sahara.

The Algerian media began waving to boycott the championship, describing the matter as "a provocation intended by its neighbor, Morocco."

As much as the Algerian reactions were very strong, Morocco and its media preferred to focus more on another tension coming from the north (the Moroccan-Spanish crisis), in which the name Algeria also appears.

 African Handball Championship crisis

The spark of tension between Morocco and Algeria due to the African Handball Championship crisis began immediately after the Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Cooperation, Moroccan Nasser Bourita, received a delegation from the African Handball Confederation led by Mansour Eremou, head of the executive office and some of its members.

Algeria considered that the official authorities in the Kingdom of Morocco "sponsor the organization of the African Championship in an occupied region, intending to provoke it," especially that the Moroccan Minister and his African guests and the President of the Moroccan Handball Federation Adli Al Hanafi met with the Minister of Youth and Sports and signed the protocol to organize the city of El-Ayoun for the African Championship 2022, after the vote of the Confederation members African Union, by consensus of 54 federations under the banner of the African Union.

This unanimity implicated Habib Laban, president of the Algerian federation, who received great pressure, due to his vote in favor of what Algerian media considered, "the file of the Moroccan occupier" to host the African championship.

The crisis of the African Handball Championship in Algeria reached a summoning of two players by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and questioning him over the "scandal of his vote against Morocco," a charge that Habib categorically denied, denying that what was announced by the President of the Moroccan Federation, who told "Arabi Post" that "Morocco's nomination was unanimous, including the representative of the Algerian Handball Federation."

During the signing of the protocol to organize the city of El-Ayoun for the 2022 African Championship with the Minister of Youth and Sports (social networking sites)

During the signing of the protocol to organize the city of El-Ayoun for the 2022 African Championship with the Minister of Youth and Sports (social networking sites)

Pressure to sacrifice the World Cup

Algeria's Channel One said that Algeria "remained steadfast in its rejection of all forms of colonialism in Africa. In return, Morocco is trying to force it to choose between normalization or withdrawing from the African championship."

Local media revealed that the Algerian handball team will be compelled to boycott the tournament because it refuses to “abandon the principle of the Algerian state in supporting the colonized peoples or play only in the city of Guelmim, which does not fall within the Sahara regions,” which is excluded from the technical and organizational point of view of the tournament.

The Algerian sports public opinion is awaiting the decision of the Algerian Handball Federation and the Algerian Olympic Committee, in light of the possibility of the national handball team withdrawing from participating in the African Nations Championship, which means that the "Greens" missed the World Championship, given that the continental date in Laayoune is a qualifying station for the World Championship. Next, which will be held equally between Poland and Sweden, in 2023.

Algeria will pay the withdrawal bill this time exorbitantly, as this step will prevent it from attending the Handball World Cup, the latter which is the most popular sport in Algeria after football, which will be considered a painful blow to this sport.

Official authorities in Algeria, whether political or sports, did not issue any official reaction regarding the final position on participating in the tournament but informed Algerian sources told Arab Post that “the local handball federation found itself in the corner, squeezed between the pressures of the higher authorities in "The country is to boycott the tournament, and he stated his responsibility for handball, which will take a painful blow by missing two international tournaments due to the authorities’ unwillingness to attend the national team in El-Ayoun, which hosts the competitions on the grounds that it is part of Moroccan soil.

The same sources indicated that Habib Laban, president of the Algerian Handball Federation, "is trying to get out with the least damage from this issue, and to address the African Union to mediate with Morocco in order to request the programming of all the Algerian national team matches in the city of Guelmim outside the conflict zones and to relieve him of embarrassment."

The president of the Algerian Handball Federation hopes that "Moroccan officials, especially within the Moroccan Football Federation, are aware of his embarrassing position and the strong pressures exerted on him on the one hand, and his desire to spare Algerian handball a crisis on the other hand."

Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Cooperation, Nasser Bourita, received a delegation from the African Handball Confederation (social networking sites)

Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Cooperation, Nasser Bourita, received a delegation from the African Handball Confederation (social networking sites)

Political "victory" for Morocco

Adli El Hanafi, President of the Moroccan Handball Federation, told Arab Post that “the African Confederation granted the organization of the continental championship in El-Ayoun, the capital of the regions of the Southern Kingdom after it succeeded ably in hosting the African Championship for champion clubs and the final of the African Super Cup for women and men in 2016 in the city. itself".

The spokesman added, "The vote to grant Morocco the honor to organize came with the consensus of 54 federations under the banner of the African Union, including the Algerian Union, given the good image that the success of all the meetings left.

Herat, which was organized by the Moroccan Federation for the Game, whether for clubs or national teams. "

The spokesman stressed that "the Moroccan Handball Federation was the first to organize international sporting events in the city of El-Ayoun, because of its sports and tourism infrastructure capable of embracing all the delegations of the participating teams," noting that "the tournament derives its importance from the fact that it is a qualifying tournament for a tournament." the world".

Hanafi described the visit of the African delegation to the cities of El-Ayoun and Guelmim as "confirmation of the political victory that Morocco has been consolidating with regard to its first cause, which is the issue of the Moroccan Sahara."

The spokesman said, "The assertion of 54 African countries that they will attend Morocco, especially the cities of El-Ayoun and Guelmim, to participate in the continental handball championship, confirms that there is unequivocal African and international recognition of the Moroccan Sahara, and of confidence in Morocco's ability to organize tightly the major sporting events."

For his part, Hamid Al-Samouni, the Moroccan journalist interested in the Sahara file, said, "The debate that Algeria is accustomed to fabricating has gone out of politics and included other areas, and even sports were not spared from it."

Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Cooperation, Nasser Bourita, received a delegation from the African Handball Confederation (social networking sites)

Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Cooperation, Nasser Bourita, received a delegation from the African Handball Confederation (social networking sites)

The spokesman added in a statement to "Arab Post" that "the threat to boycott the African Handball Championship under the pretext of its refusal to organize it in El-Ayoun does not raise any surprise because the Algerian regime considers that this Moroccan city is part of the disputed territories with the separatist Polisario Front that Algeria has made and supports in every way. As the main party in this conflict, with the aim of disrupting the Kingdom's development process, which would make its withdrawal from the championship consistent with its anti-Moroccan stance.

The spokesman indicated that Algeria "wants to score political points at the expense of sports," describing the Algerian regime as an enemy of the Kingdom of Morocco, which seeks to obstruct every international contribution bearing the Moroccan footprint.