The Confederation of African Football (CAF) awarded Berkane a 3-0 victory in the first leg of their semi-final, which was abandoned last Sunday when the Moroccan club refused to take the field after Algerian officials confiscated their shirts, which featured a map of the disputed Western Sahara.

This Sunday in Berkane (a city in north-eastern Morocco), only the local players took to the field to greet their fans as the stadium announcer told the crowd that the match had been cancelled.

Moroccan television reported that the USM Alger (USMA) team left the stadium shortly before the scheduled 1900 GMT kick-off.

The dispute began when the Moroccan team arrived in Algeria last week ahead of the first leg and customs officials confiscated Berkane's shirts on the pretext that they bore a map of Morocco that included the disputed Western Sahara.

Shortly before the first leg, USM Alger's sporting director, Toufik Korichi, told Algerian radio that the match would not be played because Berkane refused to take the field in a different kit.

The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara is largely controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which seeks the territory's independence.

Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with neighbouring Morocco in 2021, largely over the dispute.

Before kick-off on Sunday, Renaissance supporters displayed a banner with a map of Morocco showing the disputed territory. Many fans waved Moroccan flags.

The Algerian Football Federation has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne against the CAF sanction, arguing that the Cairo-based body "approved the request of the Moroccan club RS Berkane to wear a shirt with a political message", something FIFA has always opposed.

This new suspension of the match comes in the context of the scrutiny of football shirts, driven by marketing and sales attempts regardless of the consequences, often sparking anger on social media.

"There is a huge demand," said Soufiane Al Korchi, representative of the official distributor of the Moroccan team's shirts, adding that "the map has been part of the official design for three years", justifying not only its inclusion but also that there is no new reason not to continue using it.

Earlier this month, the design of the national team shirt produced by German company Adidas was called into question. At issue was the number four on the national team shirts. The number 44 was at the centre of the controversy because it was said to resemble the emblem of the Nazi SS corps.

"None of the parties involved saw any proximity to Nazi symbolism in the design process," the DFB said when the issue came to the fore in early April.

However, it added that it did not want to "provide a platform for discussion" and removed the option of personalisation and the possibility of including the number 44.

In March, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak intervened in a row over a new England football shirt designed by Nike that changed the colours of the St George's Cross, saying "we shouldn't mess with national flags".

The American sportswear giant changed the look of the Cross, England's flag, with purple and blue horizontal stripes in what it called a "playful update" to the shirt ahead of Euro 2024, prompting Sunak to complain: "My general view is that when it comes to our national flags, we shouldn't mess with them. Because they're a source of pride, of identity, of who we are, and they're perfect the way they are."

In 2023, several players in France refused to take part in an initiative organised by the country's two top divisions to support the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. The plan was to wear rainbow-coloured shirts.