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CHAN suffers setback as champions, Morocco pull out

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Sports and politics have had yet another head-on-collision as defending champions for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) Morocco pulled out of the tournament barely 24 hours to the kick-off.

The withdrawal is anchored on hosts, Algeria refusal to grant the Moroccan team, a direct flight from their capital, Rabat to Algiers.

Algerian government rejected its request for the team to fly there directly on Morocco’s national airline, the Moroccan football federation said on Thursday.

Algeria closed its airspace to Moroccan aircraft in 2021 after it unilaterally severed diplomatic ties with its North African neighbour.

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It was in similar circumstance, also premeditated by politics, that the American government refused the Nigerian contigent to the USA ‘94 a direct flight.

In two trips, the first ferrying the Super Eagles and the second carrying the supporters and the media personnel, the Nigerian Airways had to terminate their flights at Dakar Senegal and got persengers disembarked and had to reboard the flights to Dallas, Texas in the US.

In the on-going situation, it is not clear if CAF will ban Morocco for the the last minute withdrawal. The Moroccans are to open their title defence against Sudan on Sunday.

The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino is already in Algeria for the championship.

The Moroccan football body had earlier written to the CAF stating that their team would only take part if its team could take a direct flight to Algeria with Royal Air Maroc.

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Both Algeria and Morocco have been having political differences tied to the future of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco regards as its own but where Algeria backs an armed independence movement.

With the unfolding event, the likelihood of awarding the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to either of the two nations look very remote.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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