The FIFA president described Christophe Gleizes as the only sports journalist in the world to be imprisoned. A sentence which resonates like a boost to the reputation of a country, Algeria, already largely damaged.
«There is an empty chair, it is that of French journalist Christophe Gleizes, who is the only sports journalist imprisoned in the world.» Such was the resounding declaration of Gianni Infantino at the start of a press conference in Mexico City, where the global attention of all those who follow one of the biggest sporting events on the planet was focused.
As demonstrative as he was incisive, as if he wanted to aim at a target with precision, he pointed to the seat which should have been occupied by Christophe Gleizes, to whom FIFA offered honorary accreditation to cover this World Cup. He also renewed, addressed to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a particularly strong appeal in favor of the long-awaited presidential pardon.
It must be said that the Algerian regime expected everything in this World Cup organized in the United States, including an early elimination of its national selection. But he certainly did not expect to find himself at the heart of international news for such arbitrary political detention.
For Algeria’s image and reputation in the world, the blow is very hard and its negative impact will be difficult to erase. A reality is now clear: among all the authoritarian regimes on the planet, the Algerian regime is today the only one to imprison a sports journalist.
The Algerian government now finds itself forced to provide a response to an international community which is growing impatient with its sterile postures and its inability to escape the trap in which it has locked itself. The madness of the Algerian authorities consists of confusing a sports journalist with a terrorist activist and imprisoning him in the hope of using him as a bargaining chip.
The case of Christophe Gleizes has mobilized many personalities. Recently, Pope Leo XIV pleaded his case with the Algerian regime. Without success. That a regime as authoritarian as that of Algiers could ignore a request for pardon from one of the highest spiritual authorities in the world constitutes in itself an admission of failure and impotence.
“When Paris invokes the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary to refuse to satisfy Algerian demands aimed at erasing the legal consequences of its security activism on French territory, Algiers opposes the legal quibbles of a justice system under orders, notoriously reputed to operate on “telephone.”
—  Mustapha Tossa
French diplomacy, led by President Emmanuel Macron, who favored the policy of compromise over that of the balance of power, proposed a thaw in its relations with Algiers in exchange, among other things, for the release of the French journalist. Again, without results to date.
By renouncing to exercise his right of appeal in the legal proceedings against him, Christophe Gleizes had nevertheless opened the way to a presidential pardon which is still slow in coming. This was announced for Eid al-Adha, a period traditionally conducive to clemency measures. It is now mentioned for July 5, the date of Algerian independence, which could provide the symbolic framework for such a decision.
For certain observers familiar with the twists and turns of the Franco-Algerian relationship, the Algerian regime’s hesitation to release Christophe Gleizes could be explained by a desire to carry out a vast political swap. The objective would be to obtain the release, or at least the abandonment of legal proceedings initiated in France against one of its consular agents involved in an attempted kidnapping and confinement of the Algerian influencer and opponent Amir DZ.
This agent, whose identity has never been officially made public, has been detained in France since April 2025. Furthermore, French justice has also issued an international arrest warrant against the former first secretary of the Algerian embassy in France, Salaheddine Selloum, for same charges.
When Paris invokes the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary to refuse to satisfy Algerian demands aimed at erasing the legal consequences of its security activism on French territory, Algiers opposes the legal quibbles of a justice system under orders, notoriously reputed to operate on “telephone”.
The strategy of blackmail and barter appears here in broad daylight. The Algerian message seems to be the following: if you want the release of Christophe Gleizes and a warming of bilateral relations, it will not only be necessary to make a gesture concerning the consular agent detained in France, but also to put an end to a legal procedure likely to establish that the regime Algerian government acts as a state sponsor of terrorist activities and that its diplomatic apparatus was involved in kidnapping and sequestration attempts on the territory of a foreign state.
If it were to come to an end, this procedure could contribute to further isolating the Algerian regime on the international scene and further tarnishing its image.
In the meantime, Christophe Gleizes remains a black stain, even an international shame, for a regime which seems to have engaged in a dangerous movement of self-destruction.
