Thierry Henry and Kate Scott used the 70e Ballon d'or stage to honor Gleizes, turning a football ceremony into a public show of support for Christophe Gleizes. The journalist remains imprisoned in Algérie after 1 an, 3 mois et 27 jours in custody.
70e Ballon d'or in London
The tribute landed inside one of football’s most visible live events, with the evening’s masters of ceremony lending the platform to a press-freedom case. That gave Christophe Gleizes’s name a reach he would not have had in a courtroom timeline alone, and it placed his detention in front of an audience that normally tracks trophies, not legal files.
Gleizes was arrested on 28 mai 2024 while reporting on JS Kabylie. He then spent thirteen months under contrôle judiciaire and was forbidden to leave the Algerian territory before the case moved again.
Algérie and the appeal
The tribunal de Tizi Ouzou sentenced him to seven years of prison ferme with a mandat de dépôt on charges of “apologie de terrorisme” and “possession de publications dans un but de propagande nuisant à l’intérêt national.” On 3 décembre 2025, that decision was confirmed on appeal, keeping him behind bars as the ceremony celebrated support for press freedom.
That is the contradiction at the center of the story: a football gala amplified solidarity for a journalist who still faces a seven-year sentence. The ceremony did not change his status, but it did put a high-profile sporting audience behind a case that had already moved through arrest, judicial control, and appeal.
Reporters Sans Frontières
Reporters Sans Frontières is organizing a friendly match on 11 novembre prochain in support of Christophe Gleizes. For anyone following the case, the practical takeaway is simple: the public campaign is continuing, and the pressure is shifting from a one-night tribute to a scheduled on-field action.
