MEXICO CITY — FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced Wednesday that French journalist Christophe Gleizes, currently in jail for his reporting in Algeria, has been credentialed for the 2026 World Cup as the organization pushes for his release.
Gleizes was detained after reporting on JS Kabylie, a successful Algerian club based in a region where the separatist Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie is active. Gleizes was convicted of “glorifying terrorism” after having contact with members of the group and convicted to seven years in jail. The sentence was upheld after appeal, but Gleizes withdrew an appeal to the Supreme Court in March in hopes of receiving a pardon from Algeria president Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
“There is an empty seat here in this room today, and this empty seat is for a French journalist, Christophe Gleizes, who is the only sports journalist who is detained in the world,” Infantino said. “Of course he has an accreditation, and of course he has his seat here for him.
“I’ve invited his parents to a game, France-Senegal. But I hope, I really hope that in a great act of humanity, he will be given grace, the presidential grace and can even join us here during the World Cup. But for the time he’s not here, his seat is here for him for Christophe.”
Gleizes’ parents attended the recent French Cup final and also were able to visit the 37-year-old in jail, telling the AFP that he is “being treated well, but he feels increasingly isolated from the outside world.”
Now, the hope is that the additional support and attention given to his situation may lead to a pardon this summer.
“My message is to talk about my brother because he’s really keen on football,” Maxime Gleizes, Christophe’s brother said in a statement released by the Sports & Rights Alliance. “He will be really glad, I will be really glad and all the family, to have a mobilization of all the journalists in the entire world during the summer of the World Cup. I hope he will be free before the tournament ends.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FIFA’s Infantino calls on Algeria to release jailed Christophe Gleizes
