Regulators have threatened to take action, after Algerian journalist Mustapha al-Maazouzi blamed the country’s 3-0 defeat by Argentina on the Jewish “mafia.”
(June 21, 2026 / JNS) The uproar over Algeria’s 3-0 defeat to Argentina in the opening match of the World Cup continues to reverberate across the country, and has now forced the National Independent Authority for the Regulation of Audiovisual Media to intervene.
Algerian journalist Mustapha al-Maazouzi, one of the most popular media figures in the country, appeared unable to digest Lionel Messi’s hat trick against his national team and declared: “Messi is protected by the Jewish lobby. This lobby controls the world. They run it however they want, as if they were a mafia. Gianni Infantino [the president of FIFA] does not want things to go well for us.”
Al-Maazouzi continued, live on air: “We are a country with dignity. We are a country called Algeria. We have political positions regarding Western Sahara and the Palestinian issue, and that is why they do not want things to go well for us. If we had the ability to win the World Cup, they would find a way to prevent us from doing so.”
