Algeria press turn their backs on national team

The relationship between Algeria’s press and the national team reached a new low at the Africa Cup of Nations here Friday when the travelling media pack was refused entry into a training session.

In protest Algerian journalists formed a human wall and turned their backs on the players as they left the behind closed doors session at Luanda’s Escoqueirus Stadium.

Algeria coach Rabah Saadane has been upset at the flak his side have received from the country’s media generated by the team’s dismal 3-0 opening Cup defeat to Malawi on Monday.

After Algeria’s 1-0 defeat of Mali in their second game on Thursday he made clear his displeasure when he told the team’s local media in the post match press conference: “This win is the perfect answer to all our critics.”

Friday’s training was originally planned as an open session, with a bus full of Algerian journalists turning up at the training ground, only to find they were refused admission.

Then followed their unprecedented protest, not one acknowledging players like Rangers defender Madjid Bougherra or Portsmouth duo Nadir Belhadj and Hassan Yebda as they made their way to the team bus and back to their hotel.

Saadane kept silent and it was left to Algeria’s Sports minister, Hachemi Djiar, to try and act as peacemaker in the damaging row between the two sides.

“Holding a private training session was not a move against the press,” he told AFP.

“What would be the point in that? We need everyone to work together.

“The coach decided to hold it behind closed dooors so as to help concentrate the minds of the players with an important game coming up against Angola on Monday.”

The Algerian journalists, who numbered around 30, looked on sceptically.

One of their number said: “The team are upset because we criticised them after they lost so badly to Malawi. Surely that’s our job, to criticise constructively whhen things aren’t right.

“For example the coach used Marseille as a training base before the competition.

“The temperatures were freezing there, so why did he choose that place and then blame the hot and humid conditions for last Monday’s defeat?

“He should have chosen a base better suited to getting the players acclimatised to the conditions they were going to face in Angola.”

Algeria are one of six teams competing at the Africa Cup of Nations who are using the competition as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup where the Desert Foxes are drawn in a first round group which includes England, the United States, and Slovenia.