North Africa’s Football War
Posted by jonathanfryer on Sunday, 22nd November, 2009
Football matches can be a tribal affair and in several parts of the world the ‘beautiful game’ can turn into a battlefield. In Lebanon, so I am told, many games are played without crowds of supporters in case they break out into sectarian fighting and restart the civil war. In case you think that sounds far-fetched, remember that the Central American states of Honduras and El Salvador did indeed go to war in 1969 in a conflict triggered by their qualifying match for the 1970 FIFA World Cup (though of course there were political issues at stake as well). In an alarming development over the past few days a similar stand-off has been brewing between Algeria and Egypt following their recent 2010 World Cup qualifier replay in Khartoum, Sudan. The Algerians say some Egyptians threw stones at them, while the Egyptians claim Algerian fans set on them. Whatever the truth of the matter, there have been angry demonstrations in both Cairo and Algiers and many injuries. Ambassadors from the two countries have been called in by their respective host governments for a dressing down and the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, has waded into the affair, basically saying that it is normal for people to hit someone who insults their country. All this is a useful distraction for him, of course, to turn people’s minds away from Egypt’s own internal problems and the big question about what will happen when he dies or retires. Meanwhile, the new ‘football war is a depressing reminder not only of how tribal soccer can become, but more seriously of how disunited the Arab world is, even within North Africa.
Jonathan Fryer 
Egyptian said
for us it was a game , for them it was a war , after the bus incident in Cairo and before the teams played in the Sudan , their newspapers spoke about fatalities in Cairo , saying 17 Algerians killed in Cairo , an Algerian women has been raped , another women was pregnant miscarried due to assaults !!!
All this by the way were renounced by them 5 days later…but between the match in Cairo and the renouncement , 20+ million dollars of damage to Egyptian corporations in Algeria (Egypt is the biggest investor in Algeria with 6 Billion dollar worth of business), a camp where Egyptian workers are staying was surrounded by Algerian mob in thousands for days throwing rocks and molotovs , a call for Jihad was announced in some mosques against Egyptians , Egyptians in other parts were surrounded assaulted , the Algerian government hit the biggest Egyptian company there with 600 mil. in taxes , the refused to allow charter flight to land in Algerian airports to evacuate Egyptians , they took the Egyptian there as a hostage….
Now to Sudan , Algerians went and bought knives from markets raising their prices 300% , they were transported by military planes C-130 , attacked Sudanese spectators who supported Egypt ,
Egyptian said
burned bible , attacked Sudanese police …i really don’t have time to write down every single act they committed….but i want to say this , the regime there is also using this event , a re-election of Botafliqa is now guaranteed , the plan to hand the power to his brother Said is undergoing as well…but the world seem not to care as Algeria is not of influential weight , last thing i really was happy that we lost , other wise many lives were have been lost , so let them go to South Africa , and we want safety for our citizens.
Jon said
Here’s wishing you a very happy and prosperous new year !
John said
Wishing you a very happy and prosperous new year !