There is an empty seat in the press box at every France match during the 2026 World Cup. It belongs to Christophe Gleizes, a French sports journalist who cannot use it because he is sitting in an Algerian prison cell instead.
FIFA issued press accreditation number 00980549 in Gleizes’ name for the tournament. The gesture is symbolic, obviously, but symbolism carries weight when roughly 5 billion people tune into a World Cup cycle, and the man you are honoring is, by FIFA’s own account, the only sports journalist currently imprisoned anywhere on Earth.
Who is Christophe Gleizes
Gleizes, 36, has been detained in Algeria since May 2024. His alleged crime: “glorification of terrorism,” a charge connected to his reporting on JS Kabylie, an Algerian football club with a passionate fanbase and deep cultural ties to the Kabylie region. Specifically, the charge arose after he conducted an interview with an official linked to the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), which the Algerian government classifies as a terrorist organization.
An Algerian appeals court upheld a seven-year sentence against him in December 2025.
