The bit of hope that remained for Algeria not to come out with a zero point from the Tokyo Olympics, flew 24 hours before the end of the planetary meeting.
Karateka Lamia Matoub was eliminated on Saturday, August 7 after three defeats and an inglorious draw against the representative of Egypt. With 44 athletes (43 after Makhloufi’s package), the Algerian delegation returned empty-handed, without the slightest medal.
A first since Athens-2004. It has even happened in the past that Algeria won gold medals for three consecutive editions (Barcelona-1992, Atlanta-1996, and Sydney-2000).
In Tokyo, it’s a total debacle. It is disillusioning and frustration for a country that used to climb on the Olympic podiums (3 medals in 1996 and 5 in 2000 for example).
These games will at least have served to remind us that the performance of the national football team is only the tree that hides the forest of anarchy that reigns in Algerian sport.
On social networks, we cry scandal, squandering, mismanagement, favoritism, lack of attendance, in short at the decay of national sport.
All the grievances which can be maintained against the athletes, their coaches, the federations, the Olympic Committee, and the political authorities are to some extent founded. The responsibility for a national failure, in such varied disciplines, can only be collective.
While it is legitimate to be offended, we must not lose sight of the fact that the sporting performances of a nation are generally a reflection of its internal situation and its degree of development.
In the final medal table for the Tokyo Games, we find first the great nations, the most technologically and economically advanced. Then come those of medium size. This is the case for all past editions. Hierarchy has always been respected.
If this time Algeria is not even among the hundred nations which have snatched at least one bronze medal, it is because the decay of national sport has reached an unprecedented level.
The debacle was even expected with everything we have seen in recent years: tensions within the federations or between them and the government (Ministry of Youth and Sports), athletes who publicly complain about the lack of infrastructure and funding.
Football, nothing but football …
In terms of infrastructure, Algeria is lagging far behind despite the investments made in recent years. Even in Algiers, the number of swimming pools can be counted on the fingers. Athletics tracks too and approved stadiums. Local sport is neglected, being limited to football alone, a vector of social peace.
For the financing, it is not that the State does not put its hand in the pocket, it does it even with a lot of generosity but to always support football, for equally disappointing results.
Because we must not lose sight of the fact that the level reached by the national team is not the result of the training of the Algerian school or the Algerian clubs.
We must not hide our face, without binationals trained in France mainly, one of the best training models in the world, the national team would not be what it is at the moment. The proof, the Algerian clubs do not even have the right of citizenship among the continental Gotha.
Contrary to what one might think, it was not the disciplines that brought nothing back from Tokyo that were the most disappointing, but especially football. This discipline was not even represented there despite the billions that it gobbles up each year.
Almost all public aid for sport goes to football so that in the end the country is dependent on the proceeds of the French school, sums which go into undeserved wages and embezzlement.
When the athletes were eliminated in turn in Tokyo and shouted at the lack of consideration, an Algerian football club offered one of its players a staggering salary to retain him, to no avail.
We are talking about 700 million a month. There is mismanagement and inequitable distribution of resources. At the risk of repeating itself, the Olympics mirror the whole country, not just its sport.
