Defending champions Morocco has pulled out of the 2023 African Nations Championship (CHAN) following a bilateral disagreement with arch-rival and tournament’s host nation Algeria on flight issues.

Morocco’s FRMF football federation announced it’s withdrawal, citing the inability of Air Maroc, the country’s national carrier and the official national team aircraft to secure a flight permission from Algerian authorities.

“The Moroccan national team is unable to reach (the Algerian city of) Constantine because permission for their flight with Royal Air Maroc, the team’s official transporter, has not been confirmed,” the Morocco’s FRMF football federation said in a statement.

The Atlas Lions’ withdrawal came with just less than 24 hours before the tournament kick start in Algeria, despite the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) last month’s statement that Algeria had issued “an authorisation in principle” for the flight.

The two North African nations have been in decades-long disagreement over a disputed Western Sahara region and relations with Israel, with Algeria closing its airspace to all Moroccan flights in September 2021, a month after cutting ties with Morocco over “hostile acts”.

CAF is yet to release a statement about the situation at the time of filing this report.