So as you may or may not be aware, in July there will be the first ever African Club Cup tournament, in Rabat, Morocco. This competition will feature teams from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. The Algerian club involved will be Corsaires d’Alger, this is my team, my creation. I’ve wanted to create an Algerian hockey club for a while because I know it’s an important step in building the sport inside Algeria, in fact it’s the only way the Algerian hockey programme can progress.

So why did I decide on this team name? Well I wanted something fierce and strong, something unique, but something very relevant to the city of Algiers. Algeria is rich in history and is very diverse so gave me many options to choose from, but something which has always interested me is the history of Barbary pirates in Algeria. Barbary pirates were well known and feared across Europe during the times of the Ottoman rule in Algeria, Algiers being one of the main ports used by the pirates. It’s a very interesting history and well worth reading up.

For the logo I wanted a North American style sports team logo, but something new and unique, nothing like the traditional pirate logos. I gave the designer, Alex Hollowood, old artistic impressions of Barbary pirates, like the one above, and he created the logo, which I’m very happy with, I know it will get some attention, some will love it and some wont. I even expect a few to say it resembles a ‘terrorist’.

And why ‘Corsaires’ and not pirates? Well they were considered pirates to Europeans, but in North Africa they were corsairs, as they had approval of the ruling governments, and would hand treasure and captives over to the ruling powers. Corsaires is just the French version or corsairs, with it being an Algerian team.

The jerseys are in production and look great, they will be revealed along with the team roster next month in Morocco.