Algeria almost lost the organization of the 7th edition of the African Nations Championship (CHAN, open exclusively to local players) due to the negligence of the FAF and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The CHAN is scheduled in Algeria from January 8 to 31, 2023, but nothing has been done in this direction. The specifications of the African Confederation (CAF) require the organizing country to set up an Organizing Committee one year in advance. However, 10 months (less than a year) of the organization of CHAN, the FAF, and the MJS have not undertaken anything and the Organizing Committee has not yet seen the light of day.
In this sense, the CHAN-2023 risks experiencing the same adventures as the Mediterranean Games, scheduled for Oran next summer. It took the intervention of the President of the Republic for things to move so that Oran was ready to host this event.
It is the same scenario that is repeated for CHAN-2023 since Algeria is behind in terms of preparations. For example, the 19-May 1956 stadium in Annaba has been selected to host CHAN-2023 matches and to date, the stadium’s redevelopment work has not been undertaken. Worse still, the tender notices for the choice of the company to redevelop the stadium have not yet been completed. Suddenly, Algeria is late for the organization of CHAN.
As a reminder, it was in 2018 that CAF awarded Algeria the organization of CHAN for the year 2022, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, CHAN was postponed. We must therefore blame the former FAF, led by Kheireddine Zetchi, who was to undertake the organization of the event. Zetchi was much more concerned with his ambition to be re-elected as FAF president, which did not happen.
Today, the FAF of Charaf-Eddine Amara whose federal office includes elements of the BF of Zetchi shines by its incompetence and its negligence, if not how to explain the delay accused concerning the installation of the Organizing Committee of CHAN.
Côte d’Ivoire had to try to steal this CHAN from Algeria for the FAF to move and schedule a meeting of the federal office, after tomorrow Sunday, devoted to… the CHAN!
