Algiers lights up red as MC Alger fans celebrate 10th league title

The skies over Algiers turned red this week as MC Alger supporters celebrated the club’s 10th Algerian league title with flares and fireworks across the capital.

Images shared online showed red smoke and pyrotechnics rising above parts of the city, including Bab El Oued, one of the club’s historic strongholds.

MC Alger, also known as Mouloudia Club d’Alger, sealed the 2025-26 Ligue 1 title before lifting the trophy after its final league match against ASO Chlef at Stade Ali La Pointe.

The title is the club’s 10th national championship and its third in a row. MC Alger was founded in 1921 and remains one of Algeria’s oldest and most followed football clubs.

The celebrations drew attention because of their scale, with coordinated flares and fireworks lighting rooftops, streets and neighbourhoods in red.

They also came a year after MC Alger’s previous title celebrations ended in tragedy. In June 2025, three spectators died and more than 70 were injured after falling from an upper stand at the 5 July 1962 Stadium in Algiers, following the club’s league title win.

The Algerian health ministry said at the time that the deaths followed the club’s win in the top flight for a second consecutive season. AP reported that the number of injured had reached 81 and that a security barrier had collapsed amid the celebrations.

The memory of that incident gives this year’s scenes a sharper edge. Large scale pyrotechnic displays are part of North African football culture, but they also raise recurring questions about crowd control, stadium safety and public celebrations.

For MC Alger fans, the latest title confirms another dominant season for a club whose identity is closely tied to Algiers and its popular neighbourhoods.

For the city, the red flares were both a celebration and a reminder of how football victories in the Maghreb can quickly move beyond stadiums and take over streets, rooftops and skylines.