Magharebia

FIFA has decided to suspend the Algeria Football Association (FAF) starting on 23 December unless the elections planned for 22 December are carried out in accordance with the association's applicable statutes. FIFA President Joseph Blatter announced the decision on Wednesday (7 December) in Leipzig, Germany, during a meeting of the FIFA Associations Committee.

At a 27 October meeting in Zurich, the committee reaffirmed its strong commitment to support and strengthen member associations so as to protect them from governmental interference and internal wrangling. Algeria was cited as one of six cases involving governmental interference. The Ministry of Youth and the Sports issued a decree obliging FAF to increase the number of ministry experts in its executive body to 30 per cent and to ban the president of the federation from running for two consecutive terms. (Liberte, FIFA, El Watan)