Marked for Walid Bencherifa
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 May 2028
A fracture rules Hamdi Labidi out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympique Akbou will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Olympique Akbou
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market29 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olympique Akbou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 May 2028
Hamdi Labidi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Everybody at Olympique Akbou saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad29 May 2028
Merouane Mehdaoui falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Apr 2028
Position 12 on 29 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Ali Amriche has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Olympique Akbou is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Olympique Akbou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamdi Labidi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Walid Zamoum in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Akbou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Rayane Yesli gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match22 Apr 2028
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. JS Kabylie had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Nobody on the pitch touched Zizo
7.78, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Olympique Akbou had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
A promise honoured for Ali Amriche
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Olympique Akbou told Ali Amriche something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Hamdi Labidi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Oussama Darfalou has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Olympique Akbou is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Merouane Mehdaoui falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Olympique Akbou pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Hamdi Labidi gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Hamdi Labidi is on it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Looking ahead17 Apr 2028
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against JS Kabylie.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
A defender's afternoon for Hamza Mouali
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Olympique Akbou may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Mohamed Chelfaoui has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Olympique Akbou is pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Hamdi Labidi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Walid Zamoum and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad13 Mar 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Match11 Mar 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market13 Mar 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.57, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Ali Amriche has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Olympique Akbou is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Match26 Feb 2028
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Olympique Akbou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamdi Labidi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Oussama Darfalou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Hicham Messiad
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Mohamed Bounedjah to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The team sheet said everything about Oussama Darfalou
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Oussama Darfalou.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Dec 2027
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market6 Dec 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Olympique Akbou, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Walid Bencherifa was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Hamdi Labidi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Loan watch6 Dec 2027
“I did not go to MB Rouissat to sit and watch. I want to come back to Olympique Akbou and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Marked 7.54. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match4 Dec 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.