Raouraoua : “I Won’t Come Back To FAF Football Federation”

A Twitter page appeared on behalf of the former President of the FAF Football Federation, Mr. Mohamed Raouraoua, flatly denying allegations of his intention to return to the administrative control of the Algerian Football Federation.

“I completely deny the news about my intention to come back to the FAF federal presidency or to receive any communication or proposal of this kind,” Mohamed Raouraoua underscored.

The former FAF Chief, who led the Greens of Algeria to the World Cup finals in 2010 and 2014, also expressed his sadness at the early exit of the Desert Warriors from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. 

“It’s very unfortunate that the national football team has suffered such a scathing setback by being shut out from the competition, and everyone has to take on responsibility,” he argued.

Dissatisfaction reached its highest level after the twin defeats of the Greens of Algeria versus Zambia earlier this month. 

The disgruntled Algerian public and some sports personalities demanded in a bitter reaction the departure of FAF officials and that of the Spanish head coach Lucas Alcáraz, who manages the national squad.

Moreover, it should be noted that Mohamed Raouraoua published, of late, a picture of him with the new CAF President Ahmed Ahmed, and said that their encounter was held in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Ahmad Ahmed recently traveled to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj or Pigrimage, as he converted to Islam.

It is purported however that a certain friction exists between Raouraoua and the new President in the African Football Confederation (CAF) because the Malagasy official Ahmad Ahmed harbors some hostility towards the previous CAF officials including Mohamed Raouraoua himself.

In addition, other old and compromising photos (archives) also appeared on the Twitter page, showing the meetings held between Mohamed Raouraoua with former FIFA president Joseph Blatter and with his Egyptian counterpart Samir Zaher, especially as Blatter was closely associated with the name of “corruption”, and the name of Egyptian Samir Zaher was linked to the violent incidents related to the deliberate stoning by Egyptian hooligans of the national team bus in Cairo, and later on, to the very tense events surrounding the crucial Algeria-Egypt play-off world cup qualifier held in Oumdurman (Sudan).