Football in Post-Colonial and “Post-Conflict” Algeria

Abstract

The account of the historical development of Algerian football that follows seeks to describe the complexity and richness of the Algerian context and the role that sport in general and football/soccer in particular have played in the articulation of different (ideological, political and cultural) struggles within Algerian society. Hence this chapter divides the development of football in post-colonial Algeria into four stages. These are the socialist period (1962–1980), the period of economic crisis (1980–1992), the period of democratization and political crisis (1992–2003) and the period of transition toward post-conflict (2003 onward).