HIBAPRESS – Yassin Al-Damiri
A simple coincidence was enough to reveal a lot. While I was switching between satellite channels, I was stopped by an Algerian channel that was broadcasting an economic program. The program was supposed to discuss investment issues, gas, and the repercussions of the financial crisis, but the discussion veered strangely towards a topic unrelated to the economy: the 2025 African Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The program presenter seemed to have received senior editorial instructions. Instead of analyzing inflation figures or the government's plans in Algeria, he began directing his guests towards a blatant propaganda campaign against Morocco and its organization of the upcoming continental championship. The result was a consensus from all the "experts," as the program presenter called them, that the tournament would fail, and that Africans were invited to boycott it. Some even went so far as to say that Morocco was experiencing a state of "civil war" and "shooting in the streets" and using tanks against the people, a description that does not stand up to any logic and is not seen even by those living on another planet, except for the "ignorant" in the land of "the fleeing power." This episode is not an exception. Anyone following the official and semi-official Algerian media in recent months will notice a systematic, directed, and coordinated campaign against Morocco's successes on many levels, especially in organizing the 2025 African Cup of Nations. The campaign is not limited to television channels, but extends to print journalism and websites, especially to social media platforms that are swamped with armies of fake accounts known as "electronic flies." These accounts do not leave a Moroccan post without attacking it with comments calling for a boycott of the CAN, even if the post is about free honey or the weather in Marrakech or a traffic accident in Casablanca. The goal is one and clear: to sow doubt in the minds and try to distort the image of Morocco a few months before the great continental date. The truth is that Algeria is not facing "sports Morocco," but rather is facing a mirror of Moroccan success that exposes its failures. When Morocco succeeded in organizing a number of football events, including the Club World Cup, and the world was amazed by the infrastructure, stadiums, airports, and professional organization, Algerian anxiety began to escalate. Algeria, which was betting on hosting this continental championship, found itself out of the calculations after CAF chose Morocco deservedly. Here, frustration turned into an organized campaign entitled: "We did not succeed? Then let those who succeeded fail." But behind this "fly" campaign, there are also deeper internal considerations. Algeria today is experiencing a suffocating economic crisis, a clear decline in the value of the dinar, and a rising social tension due to unemployment and the high cost of living, as well as a hidden political tension between the authority and society. In such an atmosphere, there must be an external enemy to which to direct attention, and who is better than Morocco to play this role? Therefore, the media attack on the Moroccan CAN is nothing more than a diversion of attention from the inside to the outside. Instead of the Algerian citizen asking: Why hasn't my living improved despite gas exports? He is pushed to ask: "How does Morocco succeed and we don't?" Historically, the Algerian regime lives with a comparison complex with Morocco. Every Moroccan achievement is read in Algeria as a provocation, from infrastructure projects to diplomatic progress in Africa to sports successes. Therefore, Morocco's organization of a continental championship of this size is considered in the official Algerian mind a symbolic defeat that must be responded to, not with development or fair competition, but with disruption and distortion. The difference is that Morocco is working in reality, while the eastern neighbor is working on websites. Everyone knows that Morocco is preparing to organize an exceptional version of the African Cup of Nations. The new stadiums, the logistical plans, the tourism openness, and the security stability are all elements that make Morocco a candidate to organize a version that will go down in history. This is what the Algerian media understands well, and therefore it is racing against time in an attempt to create a negative atmosphere about the tournament. But experience has taught us that disruption does not eliminate success, but rather increases its brilliance. The more the tone of the attack rises, the more the world's curiosity increases to know the truth, and then the pictures and scenes from the land of Morocco are the most eloquent response to the lies. It is truly pathetic that a country that owns the second largest gas reserves in Africa turns into an "expert" who specializes in Moroccan football more than it cares about the future of its economy. Imagine with me that an economic television program in Algeria spends half its time talking about the Moroccan CAN more than it spends analyzing oil prices or the dinar's situation, like a doctor who fails to treat his patients, so he begins to analyze his neighbor's way of cooking couscous. The funniest thing is that some of the Algerian electronic flies have become more "Moroccan" than the Moroccans themselves, writing in the Moroccan dialect and calling for a boycott of the CAN. It is a strange pathological case of national jealousy disguised as advice, and a painful scene, in fact, a neighbor rich in gas, poor in ideas, standing on the border watching the successes of others from afar and contenting itself with screaming and "whining" that is always followed by the phrase "Bon Appétit."
