At the trial of Kheireddine Zetchi, former FAF president, his lawyer Me Feddag claims that he paid his $80,000 in CAF allowances back into youth and women’s football. The verdict will be delivered on 27 October.
The Kheireddine Zetchi case is now in the hands of the Sidi M’hamed court. Opened on 13 October 2026 after six successive postponements, according to Afrik-Foot, the trial of the former president of the Algerian Football Federation (FAF), in office from 2017 to 2021, has been taken under advisement: the verdict will be delivered on Tuesday 27 October 2026.
Zetchi is seeking a full acquittal after nearly two years in pre-trial detention, which began on 27 November 2024, according to the same source. The prosecution has called for 10 years’ imprisonment against him, but also against former FAF presidents Charaf-Eddine Amara and Djahid Zefizef, reports Algerie360.
The $80,000 from CAF paid back
It was during his pleading that Me Feddag, a defence lawyer registered with the Algiers Bar, revealed an element that had until now stayed out of public debate: financial payments made by Zetchi for the exclusive benefit of national football. According to the defence, he personally received $20,000 a year in CAF allowances to cover his expenses. Over the whole of his four-year mandate at the FAF, he paid back the entire $80,000 received to fund youth football and women’s football, according to Afrik-Foot.
The defence maintains that these payments were made under the eyes and control of two former federation presidents, present at the hearing, according to Foot Afrique. Me Feddag himself acknowledged the sensitivity of the subject: “I did not want to say it, and I am a little embarrassed, because my client does not want me to talk about it.”
A technical centre financed from his own funds
Zetchi also financed from his own funds 2.5 billion centimes of ceramic for the refurbishment of the national technical centre (CTN) in Sidi Moussa, still according to Foot Afrique.
The defence also demonstrated, with certified accounts in support, that not a single centime of public money from ministry subsidies was misappropriated under his mandate. These arguments directly answer the prosecution’s submissions, which seek a sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.
Verdict expected on 27 October
The Sidi M’hamed court has set the deliberation for Tuesday 27 October 2026, reports Afrik-Foot. Until then, the court has not yet ruled between the prosecution’s maximum submissions and the accounts presented by the defence.
Zetchi, placed in pre-trial detention since 27 November 2024, now awaits the judges’ decision, which will be delivered at the end of this deliberation. Amara and Zefizef, also targeted by the submissions, are in the same wait.