Algeria will end a 24-year absence from football’s top table when they kick their first ball at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Les Fennecs (the Desert Foxes) may have won the CAF African Cup of Nations since appearing at Mexico 1986, but they spent a long time in the wilderness before slowly working their way back as a competitive force at the start of the century. The current crop of players feel stronger than ever, with enough belief to put in a historic performance in South Africa.

The road to South Africa
Until finally sealing their place via a one-off play-off match with Egypt in Khartoum, Sudan, on 18 November, Algeria both suffered and impressed in their qualifying campaign. They won all six of their home games in the second and third qualifying rounds but lost three of their away visits, while drawing twice and winning the other game. As a result, they finished one slender point ahead of Gambia, Senegal and Liberia in their first qualifying group, before ending on equal terms with the Pharaohs in their second, and bringing about the need for a play-off on neutral terrain. The duo nonetheless came in eight points ahead of Zambia and 11 ahead of Rwanda.

History of the flag of Algeria

The flag was first officially hoisted on 3 July 1962. The flag is said to be a variation of the flag of liberation forces of Abd el-Kader in 1837-1847, but there is no proof of that.

- Source: Željko Heimer, 28 November 1995

Quoting the Dorling-Kindersley flag book:
[...] the flag was adopted by the National Liberation Front in 1954, based on an older design, created in 1928 by the nationalist leader Messali Hadj. From 1958 to 1962 it was the flag of the Provisional Government in exile, but was retained when independence was achieved in 1962 and has remained unchanged ever since.

The meaning of the colors is green for Islam and white for purity. According to Herzog and Hannes, the white color also reminds of Abd el-Kader, who used a white flag in his fight against the French in 1847.

The origin of the Algerian national flag and the identity of its designer are still unresolved questions, as explained in an article by Houda B. published in El Watan, #2052, 20 August 1997.
The historian M. Yahia claims that the flag was sketched in 1934, the three colours symbolizing the expected unification of the three countries of Northern Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia). The first copy of the flag was made by Messali El Hadj's wife in July 1937. The flag was used for the first time in Algiers and Belcourt during demonstrations on 14 July 1937. However, Yahia writes that the flag could have been shown for the first time in the seat of the Étoile nord-africaine (Star of North Africa) party in Paris in 1933 and used for the first time in Algeria in Algiers and Tlemcen in 1934. Another historian, M. Ghannèche, quoted by Yahia, reports that an Algerian flag with the crescent and star located in the upper part of the flag was adopted, and modified to the today's design in 1943 by the Parti du peuple algérien (Algerian People's Party, the follower of Étoile nord-africaine).

Yahia reports that Emir Abd-el-Kader used a white and green standard, which was found after his death in Cairo. However, Abd-el-Kader's standard is indeed shown in the Army Museum of Riadh El Feth in Algiers. The standard is dark blue, c. 1 x 2 m, bordered with ocher and orange squares. Said to have been found in 1914 in the mosque of Taza in Morocco, the flag was taken over by a captain of the French Army, whose family offerred it to the Army Museum in Hôtel des Invalides, Paris. The flag was retroceded to Algeria in 1970 by Jacques Chevallier, Mayor of Algiers during the French rule, during an official visit to Algiers.

A documentary made by the Algerian TV a few years ago says that the Algerian flag appeared for the first time on 26 June 1926 as the flag of the Étoile nord-africaine. The flag was green with in the upper right corner the writing "Algerian our country, Arabic our language and Islam our religion" in white Arabic letters and in the upper left corner a red star and crescent. In 1944, Fehrat Abbas presided in Setif the National Conference, during which the members of the Amis du manifeste et des libertés used a modified version of the 1926 flag. A report of the headquarters of the French Army in Constantine says that Fehrat Abbas asked women of his family to prepare 20 flags for the Setif conference. A facsimile appended to the report shows a white flag with two green horizontal stripes in the top and bottom of the flag, a red cross on the right of the flag and a red star near the hoist.

There is no official document on the national flag but Law 63-145 of 25 April 1963, signed by President Ben Bella and published in the official gazette on 30 April 1963.

- Source: Ivan Sache, 17 January 2008