From the S\u00e9tif massacre and the War of Independence, to the creation of the legendary \u00c9quipe FLN, a national team without a recognized state, which used soccer as a weapon of diplomacy.<\/b><\/p>\n
The history of Algeria at the 1982 World Cup<\/b> does not begin on the fields of Spain but nearly four decades earlier, on May 8, 1945. On the day that Europe celebrated the end of World War II World War II,<\/b> in S\u00e9tif, Algeria, the protests <\/b>in favor of independence resulted in a bloody crackdown by French authorities. The \u201cS\u00e9tif Massacre<\/b>,\u201d with tens of thousands of deaths according to Algerian estimates, marked a turning point in relations between the two sides and strengthened the demand for full independence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The armed struggle began in 1954 <\/b>by the National Liberation Front (FLN), but the battle was not fought only in the mountains and cities. In 1958, a few weeks before the World Cup in Sweden, top Algerian soccer players competing in France left their clubs and careers to form the \u00c9quipe FLN.<\/b> Among them were Rachid Mehloufi and Mustafa Zitouni,<\/b> players who had even been considered for the French national team. The new team was not recognized by FIFA, but it toured Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe,<\/b> demanding that the Algerian flag be raised and the national anthem of a country that did not yet officially exist be played at every match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From 1958 to 1962 <\/b>the team played 91 matches, serving as a tool to bring international attention to the Algerian cause. Independence finally came in 1962, and Algeria joined FIFA in 1964.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Twenty years later, at the World Cup in Spain<\/b>, the country made its first appearance in the final tournament. The 2-1 victory over West Germany was one of the biggest upsets in the tournament\u2019s history. However, the infamous \u201cShame of Gij\u00f3n,\u201d with West Germany\u2019s convenient 1-0 <\/b>by West Germany over Austria\u2014which served the interests of both teams\u2014left Algeria <\/b>out of the tournament despite having accumulated four points. The international outcry led FIFA to establish, starting with the next World Cup, that the final matches in each group would be played simultaneously.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thus, Algeria\u2019s<\/b> was linked both to one of the most politically charged stories in soccer history and to an institutional change that affected all subsequent World Cups. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 You can read more stories like this in a 640-page, large-format book titled \u201c<\/b>World Cup Confidential<\/b>“<\/b>, published by Historical Quest<\/b>.\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the S\u00e9tif massacre and the war of independence to the creation of the legendary \u00c9quipe FLN, a national team without a recognized state, which …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}