An empty seat in the press box at every France match during this World Cup serves as a quiet but powerful reminder of a colleague who should be there. French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, a writer who specialized in African football for the Paris-based magazine So Foot, remains behind bars in Algeria following a seven-year prison sentence handed down last year for allegedly supporting terrorism.
The campaign to keep his story in the spotlight reached a poignant moment just ahead of France’s upcoming fixture against Senegal at the New Jersey New York Stadium. Before national team manager Didier Deschamps took to the podium for his pre-match press conference, a group of journalists stood together, holding up scarves bearing the message Free Gleizes. The gesture underscored a growing movement among French media unions demanding his immediate release.
The human toll of the situation is being kept at the forefront by Gleizes’ mother, Sylvie, who traveled to the tournament specifically to keep international attention focused on her son. Speaking with Zoyols News, she shared that her son’s official media credentials for the World Cup had been personally approved by Fifa president Gianni Infantino before his arrest. She described her son as feeling completely cut off from the outside world, a reality made even more stark by the global football celebration happening without him.
To ensure his absence is felt deeply by everyone covering the tournament, media members are leaving a chair vacant not just in the press box, but also at every official French press conference. The empty seat is not just a symbol; it is being treated as an active workspace for an absent peer.
During Monday’s media briefing, Vincent Duluc, a respected journalist with the French daily sports newspaper L’Equipe, stepped up to bridge the gap. He directed a tactical question to Deschamps regarding hydration breaks, explicitly stating he was asking it on behalf of his imprisoned colleague.
The French manager acknowledged the weight of the moment, offering a message of solidarity to the family. Deschamps expressed his sincere hope that Gleizes would be released soon so that he could return to the press pack and ask his own questions in person.
