FIFA Grants Accreditation to Imprisoned French Journalist, Symbolic Empty Seat Kept for World Cup

FIFA has granted accreditation to French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), highlighting the governing body’s support ahead of the World Cup starting Thursday.

Gleizes, a freelance reporter sentenced to seven years in an Algerian prison last year for an interview with a football official linked to a banned separatist movement, is now authorised to cover the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19 for the French magazine *So Foot*.

RSF chief Thibaut Bruttin said the accreditation underscores that “the rightful place of this sports journalist and football specialist is not in prison, but in the stadiums and behind the scenes of this major global competition.”

Based in Paris, RSF coordinates a support committee for Gleizes.

Gleizes’ parents, Sylvie and Francis Godard, thanked FIFA and renewed their appeal for clemency from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, describing the ongoing situation as “devastating.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino left an empty seat for the jailed reporter during his pre‑tournament press conference, further signalling support.

Infantino expressed hope that Gleizes, “the only sports journalist currently imprisoned in the world,” would receive a presidential pardon and perhaps even join the World Cup.

Prospects for an Independence Day Pardon

The 37‑year‑old was detained in May 2024 while traveling to Kabylie, northeastern Algeria, to report on the country’s most successful football club, JS K.

He received a seven‑year sentence in June 2023 for “glorifying terrorism” after being previously convicted of contacting members of the Movement for the Self‑Determination of Kabylie (MAK), a group Algiers designates as terrorist.

The Godards visited Gleizes in detention last week, reporting he was “being treated well but feels increasingly isolated from the outside world.”

His sentence, imposed amid a diplomatic crisis between France and Algeria, was upheld on appeal in December.

In March, Gleizes withdrew a Supreme Court appeal to facilitate a possible presidential pardon.

On June 3, his lawyers announced that Algeria’s highest court of appeal rejected prosecutors’ request for a harsher sentence, clearing the last legal obstacle to a pardon.

Algeria traditionally grants pardons during major religious and national holidays, including July 5, which marks the country’s independence from French colonial rule in 1962.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

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