FLN football team

FLN football team

Home stadium	Various
First colours Second colours
First international
Tunisia 1–2 FLN (Tunis, Tunisia; June 1, 1957) Last International  Yugoslavia 1 - 6 FLN (Belgrade, Yugoslavia; March 29, 1961)
Biggest win
Tunisia 0-8 FLN (Tunis, Tunisia; April 15, 1958)  Morocco 0-8 FLN (Casablanca, Morocco; October 8, 1959)

The FLN football team (in Arabic:   فريق جبهة التحرير الوطني لكرة القدم‎‎,^[1] in French: Équipe du FLN de football), also known as Le onze de l'indépendance (English: The eleven of the Independence) was a team made up mainly of professional players in France, who then joined the Algerian independence movement of the National Liberation Front (FLN), and assisted in organizing football matches against national football teams.

History

The team was founded on 13 April 1958. The role of this team was primarily psychological, in order to show the French metropolitans that even professional footballers were involved in the cause, even to the extent of renouncing their status. The French authorities easily obtained the non-recognition of the team by FIFA. Despite the prohibition on play, the FLN team engaged in a world tour of about eighty meetings, including Europe, Asia and Africa. These games were widely used by pro-independence propaganda. The team existed from 1958 to 1962, bequeathing its place in 1963 to its legitimate successor, the Algeria national football team.

Player selection

Name	Birth date	Club prior to FLN	Club after FLN
Goalkeepers
Abderrahmane Boubekeur	March 13, 1931 (aged 27)	AS Monaco	MC Alger
Ali Doudou	January 5, 1927 (aged 31)	USM Bône	USM Annaba
Abderrahman Ibrir	November 10, 1919 (aged 38)	Olympique de Marseille	End of career
Defenders
Mustapha Zitouni	October 19, 1928 (aged 29)	AS Monaco	RC Kouba
Kaddour Bekhloufi	June 7, 1934 (aged 23)	AS Monaco	USM Bel-Abbès
Dahmane Defnoun	May 8, 1936 (aged 21)	SCO Angers	SCO Angers
Mohamed Soukhane	October 12, 1931 (aged 26)	Le Havre AC	Le Havre AC
Chérif Bouchache		Le Havre AC
Smaïn Ibrir	February 28, 1933 (aged 25)	Le Havre AC	End of career
Abdallah Settati		Girondins de Bordeaux
Khaldi Hammadi		Stade tunisien
Midfielders
Mokhtar Arribi	February 24, 1924 (aged 34)	RC Lens	End of career
Saïd Haddad	August 30, 1922 (aged 35)	Toulouse FC	End of career
Ali Benfadah	January 10, 1935 (aged 23)	SCO Angers	SCO Angers
Rachid Mekhloufi	August 12, 1936 (aged 21)	AS Saint-Étienne	Servette FC
Mohamed Boumezrag[note 1]	June 13, 1921 (aged 36)	US Mans	End of career
Boudjemaa Bourtal	August 22, 1933 (aged 24)	AS Béziers	End of career
Amar Rouaï	March 9, 1932 (aged 26)	SCO Angers	SCO Angers
Hassen Chabri	April 25, 1931 (aged 26)	AS Monaco	CS Hammam Lif
Abdelaziz Ben Tifour	July 25, 1927 (aged 30)	AS Monaco	USM Alger
Attackers
Abdelhamid Kermali	April 24, 1931 (aged 26)	Olympique lyonnais	End of career
Abdelhamid Bouchouk	April 14, 1927 (aged 30)	Toulouse FC	End of career
Saïd Brahimi	February 3, 1931 (aged 26)	Toulouse FC	End of career
Mohamed Maouche	April 24, 1936 (aged 21)	Stade de Reims	FC Martigny
Ahmed Oudjani	March 19, 1937 (aged 21)	RC Lens	RC Lens
Amokrane Oualiken	April 6, 1933 (aged 25)	Nîmes Olympique	MC Alger
Abderrahmane Soukhane	November 13, 1936 (aged 21)	Le Havre AC	Le Havre AC
Abdelkader Mazouz	August 6, 1932 (aged 25)	Nîmes Olympique	FC La Chaux-de-Fonds
Mohamed Bourricha		Nîmes Olympique
Abdelkrim Kerroum	March 25, 1936 (aged 22)	AS Troyes et Savinienne	MC Saïda
Hocine Bouchache	April 20, 1932 (aged 25)	Le Havre AC	Le Havre AC
Saïd Amara	March 11, 1933 (aged 25)	AS Béziers	Girondins de Bordeaux
Abdelhamid Zouba	June 8, 1930 (aged 27)	Chamois Niortais	Chamois Niortais

Notes

1. Mohamed Boumezrag Trained the team from 1957 to 1962, also played for the team between 1957 and 1959.

References

1. Pronunciation in Arabic is  fariq jabhate al-taḥrir al-watani 

External links

• Equipe FLN : History and Matches on RSSSF