The Shirt Dispute That Never Became a Match

The first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-final between USM Alger and RS Berkane was scheduled for 21 April 2024. According to AFP, Algerian customs officers confiscated Berkane’s shirts after the Moroccan club arrived in Algeria because they carried a map of Morocco that included the disputed Western Sahara. Berkane refused to play in other shirts, and the match was canceled.

Shortly before the first-leg kickoff, USM Alger sporting director Toufik Korichi told Algerian radio that the match would not be played because Berkane would not wear another design. A week later, the return leg in Berkane was also canceled. Moroccan television reported that USM Alger left the stadium just before the scheduled 1900 GMT kickoff. Only the home players took the field and saluted their fans while the stadium announcer told the crowd the match had been canceled.

There was no contest on the field to settle the tie. AFP reported that CAF awarded Berkane a 3-0 victory for the first leg. CAF later said its Appeal Board dismissed USM Alger’s appeal and upheld an earlier decision by the organization’s Organizing Committee, without the published account specifying the underlying sanction.

The dispute reached the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which held a remote hearing on 13 November 2024 and issued its ruling on 26 February 2025. CAS said the shirts displayed a territorial map of a political nature and were contrary to CAF regulations. It said the parties did not dispute that the map included Western Sahara and did not correspond to Morocco’s official map as published by the United Nations; the territorial dispute itself remains contested and unresolved. CAS also cited CAF’s obligation to respect political neutrality, while finding USM Alger’s appeal inadmissible because only the Algerian football federation had exhausted the available legal remedies. The tribunal said its award had no effect on the results of the 2023/24 Confederation Cup.