Walid Sadi, president of the Algerian Football Federation, declared his intention to abstain from attending the Confederation of African Football (CAF) awards ceremony on Monday in Marrakesh, Morocco. The announcement was made on Sunday.
Sadi was quoted by the Algerian Al-Hayat as saying, “I declared my absence from the African Ballon d’Or awards ceremony two days prior and informed CAF of my decision.”
Sadi emphasized that “no Algerian will attend the ceremony in solidarity with Riyad Mahrez,” who was disqualified from the Best African Player of the Year competition in 2023.
The Confederation of African Football unveiled a shortlist of three candidates for the African Ballon d’Or. The list included Egyptian Mohamed Salah, the star of English Premier League, Nigerian Victor Osmin, the Italian Napoli striker, and the Moroccan national team right-back Achraf Hakimi. The announcement was made a few days ago.
Despite achieving a historic hat-trick with his former club, Manchester City, Algerian Riyad Mahrez was not included on this list. Together, they won the FA Cup, the English Premier League, and the Champions League.
Mahrez, who had an outstanding campaign with City, made the decision to alter the ambiance by joining Al-Ahly Saudi Arabia during the summer transfer window.
In the interim, Pep Guardiola, his former coach at Manchester City, conveyed an indirect response to CAF via message.
Guardiola expressed regret at Mahrez’s departure during his press conference, stating, “While I desired Gundogan and Mahrez to remain with us, they both chose to depart, possibly in pursuit of a new challenge or for family obligations.”
“Whatever the reasons, I am grateful to them,” he continued. Without them, we would not have been able to win the championships that we did. “Haventing this happen would have been unattainable.”