Belaili faces FIFA complaint as MC Alger contract dispute deepens

Youcef Belaili has been accused of breaching an agreement with MC Alger after publicly calling the club’s general manager, Djamel Benlamri, “a liar” during an escalating dispute over his future.

The 34-year-old Algeria international was recently cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to return from a one-year suspension originally imposed by FIFA in connection with his dispute with Ajaccio. However, his return to football has been followed by a fresh contractual controversy involving MC Alger and Esperance de Tunis.

Belaili was officially announced as having extended his contract with Esperance shortly after the CAS decision. MC Alger, however, maintains that it holds a contract co-signed by the player, who has won 58 caps for Algeria and scored 10 international goals.

Benlamri, Belaili’s former Algeria and MC Alger team-mate, is now the Algerian club’s general manager. Speaking about the dispute, he repeated MC Alger’s warning to Esperance and insisted that the agreement with Belaili included a clause requiring the player to join the club automatically once his suspension had been lifted.

Belaili later responded in a telephone interview with El Heddaf TV, rejecting Benlamri’s claims and accusing his former team-mate of lying.

“Benlamri is a liar,” Belaili said during the live broadcast.

The winger also claimed that “the MC Alger pre-contract has expired” and that it “went beyond the 10 days”. His comments appear to suggest that he did sign an agreement with the club, although his subsequent statements created further uncertainty.

Belaili said he had never seen a contract before then, but also indicated that a return to MC Alger could still be possible. That apparent contradiction has added to the confusion surrounding the player’s contractual status.

MC Alger now appears to have escalated the matter. According to El Heddaf TV, the lawyer representing the club, widely known as the “Doyen of Algerian clubs”, has approached FIFA and lodged a complaint against Belaili.

The development comes immediately after Belaili emerged from a lengthy legal battle over the suspension imposed in his dispute with Ajaccio. His ban had initially threatened to keep him out of football for a year, but the CAS ruling allowed him to resume playing.

He is now facing another potential legal dispute, this time over the alleged agreement with MC Alger and his subsequent continuation with Esperance de Tunis. The competing claims leave his next move uncertain, with MC Alger insisting that Belaili is bound by the terms of its contract and the player disputing the club’s account while leaving open the possibility of joining them.