Federation of Algerian Football Begins Preparations for AFCON 2024

After the early qualification of the Algerian Fennecs to the AFCON 2024 in Ivory Coast, following the two successive victories over Niger for the third and fourth rounds of the qualifiers, (2-1) in Algeria and (0-1) in Tunisia, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) set a date for the start of the tournament, from January 13 to February 11, 2024.

The Federation of Algerian Football (FAF), in coordination with the Fennecs’ coach Djamel Belmadi, has begun to adjust the national team’s preparations for AFCON 2024, especially about the friendly matches that the companions of Riyad Mahrez will play in anticipation of this date.

Considering that the fifth and sixth rounds of the 2023 African Cup qualifiers in Ivory Coast, postponed to 2024, will be symbolic for the national team, after ensuring its qualification to the finals at the top of Group F with 12 points so far, after winning last week in the double confrontation against Niger, back and forth. Coach Belmadi will dedicate the next stage, including the two remaining matches of the qualifiers against Uganda next June, and then Tanzania in September, to prepare for the finals, which will take place nine months from now.

Coach Belmadi’s first and main task in the coming period will be to go through the largest possible number of training sessions and friendly games to create harmony in the national team, due to the many changes that it witnessed in the last two confrontations against Niger, which touched all lines, including goalkeepers, and joining six new players at once, which somewhat affected the national team’s performance.

In the same context, the national coach, Djamel Belmadi, made a real revolution against the starting line-up on the occasion of the Niger match, as he inserted two completely different squads between the first match that took place at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algeria and in the second match that was played in Tunisian Radès, and this by including new players for the first time to join the national team, the English Wolverhampton’s back, Rayan Ait Nouri, the French Toulouse striker, Farès Chaibi, French Nice striker, Badredine Bouanani, French Nantes defender, Juan Hajjam, and French Bastia fullback Kévin Guitoun.

According to reliable media sources, the national team’s preparation program for the AFCON 2024 will include holding no less than six friendly matches, in addition to the last two qualifiers against Tanzania and Uganda, which will be an opportunity to prepare the national squad in the same framework.

According to the same sources, the national coach Djamel Belmadi wants to take advantage of the next international downtime scheduled for next June to play a friendly match or two if that is possible, and the same for the international downtime for next September, which will coincide with the AFCON’s draw.