Among the many feats of arms of our veterans who sacrificed themselves so that our country could free itself from the abominable colonial yoke, is the epic of the FLN footballers. The 60th anniversary of Algeria’s independence is a great opportunity to remind us of their heroic and remarkable history as well as that, vile and abject, of those who wanted to harm it. The latter had not understood that the wheel of history turns inexorably in the direction of the will of the oppressed peoples.
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Lord Triesman, the former chairman of the English Football Association, said it out loud : “FIFA acts like a mafia family”. Even worse, he clarified that his officials “use football to live like monarchs” and, “what is shocking is that they make no attempt to hide their corruption”. For him, the only solution for the “FIFA system” is to “shake it until it collapses and start again”
And this is still relevant. Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, respectively former FIFA president and his UEFA counterpart were recently tried for “suspicions of fraud, breach of trust, unfair management and forgery in titles”.
Not to mention the scandals of their predecessors, such as the Brazilian Joao Havelange (nicknamed ” the godfather of of sport’s corrupt family “) or the Briton Stanley Rous in his “business” of manipulation of the 1966 and even the 1974 world cups.
Corruption and embezzlement are definitely in the genes of this international organization. But what challenges the most and which is rarely highlighted by the Western media, is its harmful role as a political instrument used by Western countries. This was demonstrated in a previous article in the context of the Cold War, but we will continue this analysis in the context of countries that were fighting for their independence in order to free themselves from the colonial yoke imposed by these same Western countries. This is the case of Algeria, whose footballers have given unique lessons of bravery and self-sacrifice in the history of football and the struggles for the liberation of peoples.
The Eleven of Independence
On April 15, 1958, the French sports daily L’Équipe headlined in bold on its front page: “Nine Algerian footballers (including Zitouni) disappear”. Next to the title, the photo of Mustapha Zitouni, his wife and two children: “Mustapha Zitouni will not play tomorrow against Switzerland. He disappeared with his wife and children.
The front page of the newspaper L’Équipe of April 15, 1958, Click on the image to enlarge
The newspaper’s focus on Zitouni was not accidental. It must be said that this star player at AS Monaco was considered one of the best defenders in the world and, a few weeks earlier, the famous Di Stéphano’s Real Madrid had unrolled him « a golden bridge to hire him ». It is said that Zitouni would have answered :
“Don’t worry, I will soon be playing for the best team in the world.”
The other reason for this interest: the football World Cup which was to take place in Sweden, from June 8 to 29, 1958, less than two months later. Indeed, four Algerian players had been selected for the France team to participate in this prestigious international event. In addition to Mustapha Zitouni, Rachid Mekhloufi (AS Saint-Étienne), Abdelaziz Bentifour (AS Monaco) and Mohamed Maouche (Stade de Reims) have been called up to play alongside the legendary Raymond Kopa (Réal Madrid), Just Fontaine and Roger Piantoni (both at the Stade de Reims).
A few days later, the Algerian team of the FLN (National Liberation Front), the eleven of independence, met in Tunis.
He was ready to play his role of ambassador of the Algerian cause in all fields of the world and to enter definitively into the great legend of football.
Arrival of four Algerian footballers in Tunis aboard a Tunis Air plane: Rachid Mekhloufi, Abdelatif Bentifour, Mustapha Zitouni and Abderrahmane Boubekeur. We recognize Rachid Mekhloufi with his bandage on his head. For the record, Mekhloufi had been injured during his last match (April 12, 1958) and lost consciousness. On the morning of the 14th, he left the hospital in his pajamas with his future teammates from the FLN team, a raincoat on his back. Click on the image to watch the video
The first FLN team of 1958 :
Standing from left to right: Mohamed Boumezrag (leader), Mokhtar Aribi, Abderrahmane Boubekeur, Amar Rouaï, Mustapha Zitouni, Kaddour Bekhloufi. Squatting: Abdelhamid Kermali, Rachid Mekhloufi, Saïd Brahimi, Abdelaziz Bentifour, Abdelhamid Bouchouk. The team was incomplete due to the arrest in France of Hassan Chabri and Mohamed Maouche.
To complete it, the young retiree Mokhtar Aribi returned to service as player-coach and the eleven was completed with Khaldi Hammadi, an Algerian playing in the Tunisian championship. In 1961, this team had 32 players.
Confident in front of the journalists, coach Mokhtar Aribi declared: “We are going to set ourselves up as the Algerian National Federation, and expect to receive the approval of the International Football Federation [FIFA]”.
Aribi reproduced, in part, the FLN press release issued on April 15, 1958:
“[…] As consistent patriots, placing the independence of their homeland above all else, our footballers wanted to give the youth of Algeria proof of courage, righteousness and selflessness. The FLN plans to create an Algerian National Federation which will apply for membership of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in order to participate in international competitions and the next World Cup”.
Unfortunately, the task was going to be much more complicated.
On April 20, 1958, the Algerian “pros” were received by the Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba who saluted their courage and assured them of help and support. Very quickly, the Tunisian “brothers” organized the first competitions for the FLN team.
Less than three weeks later, a tournament bearing the name of Djamila Bouhired, the icon of the Algerian revolution (who had been sentenced to death on July 15, 1957), was organized. It brought together the national teams of Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.
On May 9, 1958, in front of jubilant spectators of Tunisians and Algerian fighters, the Algerian national anthem “Qassaman” was played for the first time before a football match. The eleven of independence flew over the tournament by winning all its meetings.
This was the start of a prestigious list. In four years, she will have played 91 matches for 65 wins, 13 draws and 13 losses, all away (of course!).
This team met teams from 14 pays différents : Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Iraq, Jordan, China, Vietnam, USSR, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
The team’s offensive and spectacular game amazed: 387 goals for and 127 against! This earned Algerian players the nickname “brown diamonds” attributed by the the Romanian press.
These trips made it possible to plead the just cause of the independence of Algeria. Players and team leaders had the opportunity to meet illustrious political figures. In Vietnam, for example, they were invited to lunch with Ho Chi Minh and General Giap.
Crédits : Hacène Laleg
After the FLN’s victory against Vietnam (5-0), the general known for his humor and his legendary expressions said this premonitary sentence:
“We beat the French. And as you have just beaten us, the logic is implacable: you will be victorious over the French”.
Ferhat Abbas, President of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, declared: “You have just gained ten years for the Algerian cause”.
FIFA: a colonialist organization
When we look at the countries that have allowed the “Independence Eleven” to face their national and local teams on their soil, we get the following map:
Map showing the countries that faced the FLN team.
These are therefore certain Arab countries and countries of the former Eastern bloc extended to China and Vietnam. None of the Western countries, even those who excel in hollow and hypocritical slogans relating to “Human Rights” and “Brotherhood among peoples”, have deigned to play against this courageous and revolutionary team. As is the case today with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, these countries have always stood together even when they are wrong and history relentlessly demonstrates their mistakes. General Giap caricatured this Western “specificity” so well by ironically saying that “the imperialists are bad students”.
Excerpt from General Giap’s speech in Algiers (January 1976) Click on the image to watch the video
It must be said that the French Football Federation (FFF) did not skimp on the means in order to harm this FLN team which had de facto emancipated itself from France even before the official independence of Algeria.
The FLN applied for FIFA membership in May 1958, raising the ire of the FFF, which exerted strong pressure on FIFA to defeat the project. Not only does FIFA yield without difficulty to the wishes of the French federation, but it does even more: it threatens with sanctions any country that dares to confront those who have been dubbed by Paris-Match« the fellaghas of football » and, to top it off , it forced the Confederation of African Football (CAF) not to accept Algeria in its ranks.
Thus, on the eve of the “Djamila Bouhired” tournament organized in Tunisia in May 1958 and which was discussed previously, the English Arthur Drewry, at the time president of FIFA, condemned the participating countries (Tunisia, Libya and Morocco). Morocco will be banned from FIFA for one year and Tunisia’s membership has been deferred for two years.
Stanislas Frenkiel, sports historian, explained these sanctions by the fact that Tunisia hosted the FLN team and that Morocco “showed its support for the cause of Algerian independence”.
Despite this virulent ambient animosity, it is important to underline the fraternal gesture of Mustapha Zitouni’s teammates. Indeed, Raymond Kopa, Just Fontaine and Roger Piantoni showed their sympathy by sending him a postcard from Sweden where they were competing in the 1958 World Cup.
In December 1959, the idea of a match between the “eleven of independence” and the German clubEintracht Frankfurt (and not the national team!) – which would have “saved the honor” of Westerners – was quickly nipped in the bud under FIFA’s threat of heavy sanctions against the FRG football federation.
By attacking the FLN team harshly and immorally, FIFA helped France in its despicable work of colonization and in its bloody war against the Algerian people. It has flouted the fundamental values of sport set out by UNESCO, namely fairness, equality, inclusion and respect. As explained in a previous article, FIFA has always been an instrument in the hands of the West, the colonizers, the oppressors and NATO.
With its perpetual unsportsmanlike and pro-Western behavior as can still be seen today in the light of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and its double standards policy, it is time for non-Western countries to adopt a confederation which is their own and which defends their interests while leaving this corrupt and subservient organization which is called FIFA.
As global geopolitics is changing, it is crucial to think about establishing institutions that do not exclusively serve the interests of this group of minority countries that has arrogated to itself the right to rain or shine on the whole planet and which is at the origin of all the world conflicts and the most barbaric exactions of all the history of humanity. This is valid in the field of sport, but also in culture, politics, the economy and all spheres that have an influence on the lives of all citizens of the world.
On July 5, 2022 Algeria will celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of its independence after 132 years of savage colonization. Despite their efforts, neither FIFA, nor CAF, nor the FFF, nor France, nor NATO have been able to prevent our country from wresting its national sovereignty. Because, as the Tunisian poet Abou el Qacem Echebbi puts it so well:
When one day the people want to live,
Force is for fate to answer,
Force is for the darkness to dissipate,
Force is for the chains to break.
Glory to our footballers. Glory to our martyrs. Happy 60th birthday my country!
Translated from https://www.ahmedbensaada.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=621:2022-07-04-21-26-10&catid=48:orientoccident&Itemid=120
