The International Football Federation (FIFA) has issued accreditation for the 2026 World Cup to French journalist Christophe Gleizes, detained for a year in Algeria, the NGO Reporters Without Borders announced on Wednesday June 10, welcoming “a demonstration of strong support” from the organization.
This accreditation, awarded to the media responsible for covering the World Cup which begins on Thursday, “reminds how the place of this sports journalist specializing in football is not in prison but in the stadiums and behind the scenes of this major world competition,” declared Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in a press release.
Christophe Gleizes was arrested in May 2024 in Algeria as part of a report on the Jeunesse sportif de Kabylie (JSK) football club. First placed under judicial supervision, he was incarcerated in June 2025, after his conviction for “apology of terrorism” to seven years in prison.
Accreditation number 00980549
“While the most important international football competition is about to open, our son Christophe remains imprisoned,” lamented his parents, Sylvie and Francis Godard, quoted in the press release. “This never-ending situation upsets us,” they added. Expressing their “gratitude” to Fifa, they reiterated their call for “clemency” from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, from whom they ask for a pardon.
“We are convinced: his release is in the interest of all,” they said. His parents went to visit him in detention last week, they added. “Christophe was doing well and is being treated well but feels more and more isolated from the outside world,” said his mother, Sylvie.
The accreditation which bears the number 00980549 authorizes the 37-year-old journalist to cover the entire World Cup which is being played in the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, for the magazine So Foot of which he is a contributor. His conviction for “apology of terrorism” to seven years in prison, which occurred in June 2025 in the midst of a diplomatic crisis between France and Algeria, was confirmed on appeal at the beginning of December.
Christophe Gleizes withdrew an appeal in March, in the hope of paving the way for a presidential pardon. The journalist’s lawyers announced on June 3 the rejection by the Algerian courts of the prosecution’s cassation appeal, a decision which “closes” the legal proceedings and removes the last obstacle to a possible pardon.
