Soon a friendly match between Blues and Fennecs? The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron has positioned himself in favor of a friendly football match between the teams of France and Algeria, on the occasion of his trip to Algiers, Friday August 26.
A football match between France and Algeria? “I think it would be a good thing to ward off the past,” declared Emmanuel Macron in Algiers. In 2001 the lawn of the Stade de France was invaded. pic.twitter.com/lpoUf5bk28
— Guillaume Daret (@GuillaumeDaret) August 26, 2022
“I think it would be a good thing to ward off the past”, replied the Head of State, questioned by journalists on the advisability of a new meeting between the two selections. The last match, more than 20 years ago, ended prematurely with an invasion of the Stade de France pitch by Algerian supporters.
“We will obviously talk about it with the president (Abdelmadjid Tebboune) and his teams, it’s not for me to say, and then it will also depend on the chance of the competitions to come, for some, I wish us so”he said, after a long visit to the European cemetery of Saint-Eugene, in the suburbs of Algiers, on the second day of his trip to Algeria. “I think sport should reconcile […] culture, as I mentioned yesterday in the press conference, and sport, these are fields where we must be together, so sometimes we can compete, but we compete in a friendly way”he insisted.
The memory of the match of October 6, 2001 has long prevented the holding of a new France-Algeria, a project several times mentioned, but never realized. On October 6, 2001, in a crowded Stade de France, whistles sounded as soon as the players were announced, then during the French anthem. In the 76th minute, hundreds of Algerian supporters had invaded the lawn while their team was largely dominated 4 goals to 1 by the Blues, causing the suspension and then the stoppage of the match.