The Algerian club USM Alger received a warm reception upon their arrival at Oujda Airport on Friday,ahead of Sunday’s CAF Confederation Cup return leg semi final against host RS Barkane of Morocco.
The delegation left the airport after about 20 minutes boarding a hired bus to ‘’Be Live Collection’’ one of the classified hotels in the city of Saidia, where its members will stay during the next two days, before facing the RS Berkane team in the second leg of the African Confederation Cup semi-final.
The Algerian team arrived in Morocco for the second leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-finals against RS Berkane, taking place on Sunday.
The warm welcome extended to USM Alger stands in stark contrast to the treatment RS Berkane received in Algeria last week,which was marred by controversies .
While USM Alger was greeted with flowers and a warm reception, RS Berkane faced a daunting ordeal during their previous visit for the first leg of the semi-finals.
After landing at the Houari Boumediene Airport in Alger last Friday, RS Berkane’s delegation was left stranded at the airport for hours after Algerian authorities confiscated their equipment.
Algerian authorities confiscated RS Berkane’s equipment due to the fact that their jerseys featured the full map of Morocco, including the southern provinces.
The team eventually left the airport after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) reassured them that their equipment would be returned before their game.
Despite CAF urging Algerian authorities to return the Moroccan team’s equipment, they refused to do so, and the match was eventually forfeited.
CAF eventually declared RS Berkane winner of the abandoned match with a 3-0 victory scoreline
