A soccer membership from Morocco was awarded a win beneath weird circumstances this week after their kits have been confiscated by customs officers in Algeria.

Renaissance Sportive Berkane, primarily based within the northwest Moroccan metropolis of Berkane, was scheduled to go to Algerian aspect USM Alger within the first leg of their CAF Confederation Cup semifinal tie on Sunday, April 21. However the Moroccan aspect refused to take the sector after Algerian customs officers held the staff up for hours on the airport in Algiers and finally confiscated their kits.

Nonetheless, on Wednesday, the Confederation of African Soccer sided with RS Berkane, awarding them a 3-0 default victory. The CAF additionally indicated that additional sanctions could be handed down towards USM Alger — the defending Confederation Cup champions — due to the incident.

At problem is a map of Morocco on the chest of RS Berkane’s kits. The map contains the Western Sahara territory, which has been on the heart of a dispute between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic since Spain relinquished management of the area in 1975.

*A graphic posted to RS Berkane’s Fb web page selling the primary leg of their CAF Confederation Cup semifinal tie towards USM Alger. (Courtesy **RS Berkane** / Fb)*

A graphic posted to RS Berkane’s Fb web page on Monday, April 22, with the caption: “Thanks to the Moroccan people from the precious Tangier to the dear Quaira for their solidarity with the team” (translated from Arabic to English by Fb). *(Courtesy **RS Berkane** / Fb)*

RS Berkane had worn the kits with the map all through the present Confederation Cup marketing campaign, however “Algerian commentators termed it provocative and said it flew in the face of rules banning displays of a political nature on football kit,” Al Jazeera experiences.

This isn’t the primary time political tensions between the 2 nations have spilled over onto the soccer pitch. In January 2023, a staff of Moroccan under-23 gamers withdrew from the CAF African Nations Championship being held in Algeria after the Algerian authorities refused to let the staff fly immediately there on Morocco’s nationwide airline, Royal Air Maroc. Algeria closed its border with Morocco and banned Moroccan plane from coming into its airspace in August 2021 due to the dispute.

The CAF has stated it expects the second leg of the Confederation Cup semifinal tie to go forward on the Berkane Municipal Stadium on Sunday, April 28.