CAF Slaps Algerian Regime Again and Approves RSB’s Jersey with Map of Morocco
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has given the green light to the team Renaissance Sportive de Berkane (RSB) to wear their jersey featuring the complete map of Morocco during continental competitions.
Sources within the Berkane club confirmed that the African body approved the jersey presented by the Moroccan representative in preparation for the CAF Confederation Cup matches, whose qualifiers started at the end of this week.
It is noteworthy that RSB, the runner-up in the last edition, is exempt from the preliminary round.
The orange jersey of RSB caused a significant stir last season after Algerian authorities acted strangely with the Moroccan team delegation upon their arrival at Houari Boumediene Airport to face USM Alger in the first leg of the semi-final of this tournament last April. Algerian authorities confiscated the team’s equipment, preventing them from using it on the grounds that the map of the Kingdom on the jersey represented a “violation of Algerian national sovereignty.”
This ultimately led to USM Alger’s loss in both the first and second legs due to the Algerian officials’ intransigence and opposition to Morocco’s territorial integrity, pending CAF’s sanctions against the Algerian Football Federation and USM Alger related to these incidents.
