FIFA - Tag Search

The Egyptian and Algerian soccer teams will meet tomorrow in Luanda, Angola for a semifinal match in the African Cup of Nations -- and diplomats from both countries are working to avoid a repeat of the violence that followed the last Egypt-Algeria match.

There were some amusing reports on Thursday that the Iranian national football association accidentally sent a New Year's greeting to its Israeli counterpart. The slightly perplexed Israelis responded with a message that wished "all of the good people in Iran a happy new year."

The response from Iran was not so light-hearted: Mohammad-Mansour Azimzadeh, the head of the football association's foreign relations department, was forced to resign today, according to state-run Press TV. The association's president has expressed "deep remorse" over the incident.

The diplomatic row between Algeria and Egypt seems to have cooled off, with Egyptians turning their attention to European football and Algerians looking ahead to the World Cup.

But Lebanese pop star Haifa Wehbe, perhaps sensing a business opportunity, announced last week that she won't schedule any more concerts in Algeria -- because Algerians "wouldn't understand" her music.

Surely her next announcement will be an Egyptian tour? Haifa should probably stick to playing venues in Lower Egypt, though, since she managed to offend the entire Nubian community last month by calling them "monkeys." (Earlier this week, an Egyptian court dropped the defamation lawsuit (عربي) filed against Wehbe by a group of Nubian lawyers.)

Lakhdar bin Turki, Algeria's ministry of culture, said Wehbe won't be allowed to perform in Algeria (عربي) "even if she apologizes."

Egypt will not return its ambassador to Algeria until the latter apologizes and pays compensation (عربي), legal affairs minister Mufid Shehab said today.

Shehab said Egypt is not interested in permanently cutting diplomatic ties with its North African neighbor, but demanded a public apology and compensation for injuries and for damage to Egyptian businesses. He also said his government has submitted a dossier to FIFA detailing violence against Egyptian citizens.

Several thoughtful readers passed along this story (عربي) from Libya's state-run JANA news agency. A rough translation:

JANA has learned that the leader of the revolution, the president of the African Union, will work to close the rift between the brotherly countries of Egypt and Algeria caused by the recent football match between the two. The Arab League's secretary general, Amr Moussa, made a telephone call on Monday and appealed for intervention to heal the rift within Arab-Arab relations.

The Egypt-Algeria mediation will cap off a busy month for the Libyan dictator, whose most recent act of diplomacy was to urge 500 beautiful Italian women to convert to Islam. (One of them reportedly accepted, so he's batting .002.)

The Egyptian government seems determined to milk the "Egypt-Algeria crisis" for at least a few more days of outrage.

Al-Masry Al-Youm reports (عربي) that demonstrations continued in Cairo yesterday; protesters demanded that Egypt cut its diplomatic relations with Algeria and expel Algerian students studying in Egypt.

An argument also broke out in parliament, where several committees -- Arab affairs, youth, and defense -- were meeting to discuss the "crisis." Lawmakers blamed each other for failing to protect Egyptians living in Algeria, and in Khartoum, where last week's final qualifying match was played.

Forgot to post this yesterday, but Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, had a good column yesterday (عربي) on the football riots in Egypt. He writes that football riots are normal -- but not when governments step in and encourage the rioting, or respond by withdrawing their ambassadors. (He also notes that Egypt didn't withdraw its ambassador from Israel, despite Israel's wars in Lebanon and Gaza.)

Relatedly: The Arabist has some good thoughts on the situation in Cairo.

Michael Slackman is being sensational when he compares yesterday's riot at the Algerian embassy to the Egyptian bread riots of the 1970s. The bread riots involved hundreds of thousands of people; hundreds were killed, and the government had to deploy the army to quell the protests.

Yesterday's riot, while ugly, involved a few hundred people, and a few dozen injuries, mostly to police officers. Al-Masry Al-Youm puts the numbers slightly higher (عربي): One thousand protesters clashing with roughly 5,000 police officers.

But Slackman's larger point is interesting: The Egyptian government, rather than trying to quell the anti-Algerian sentiment in the country, is stoking it.

First, to our readers in Egypt, Algeria and Sudan: If you have any stories about the security situation this week, we'd love to hear from you, in the comments section or via e-mail.

Al-Jazeera reports that a small group of protesters, throwing stones and homemade firebombs, tried to attack the Algerian embassy (عربي) on Brazil Street in Cairo's normally-peaceful Zamalek district. They were repelled by a large group of riot police, and the embassy is now cordoned off. Several police vehicles were reportedly destroyed in the clash; no word on injuries.

A pair of football matches seem to have turned into a serious international incident between Egypt and Algeria.

The Egyptian foreign ministry recalled its ambassador to Algeria today. The ministry also summoned Algeria's ambassador to Egypt, Abdul Qader Haggar, for the second time this week. Officials "informed him of... Egypt's extreme displeasure against the assaults on Egyptian citizens who went to Khartoum to support the Egyptian team."

(Updated below) Algeria edged out the Egyptian squad to secure its third trip to the World Cup.

The lone goal came in the 40th minute: Antar Yahia blasted a close-range shot past the Egyptian goalkeeper, Essam el-Hadary. The Egyptian team had been the favorite to win today's qualifier, which was played under tight security in Khartoum.

Thousands of Algerian and Egyptian football fans -- and tens of thousands of Sudanese police -- are in Khartoum for tomorrow's World Cup qualifier between the two rivals.

The Algerian government offered discounted tickets to fans, according to AFP; Sudanese airport authorities expect more than 60 planes carrying fans from the two countries, mostly from Algeria. (Thousands of Egyptian fans took buses instead of planes; others already work in Sudan.)

Via Twitter, a cool photo of some Egyptian fans celebrating in the streets after their World Cup qualifier win over Algeria tonight:

This brings back memories. I was in Cairo during the African Cup in early 2006; I went to a couple of qualifiers (Egypt-Morocco and Libya-Ivory Coast), and I spent the night wandering Cairo with friends after Egypt won the finals. It seemed like the entire city was out in the streets. The celebration outlasted us, in fact; we called it a night around 2:30 a.m.

The tournament happened to coincide with the Muhammad cartoon riots, which made for some slightly absurd scenes -- men burning Danish flags next to guys selling Al-Ahly jerseys. Good times.

The streets of Cairo are loud with celebration tonight, after the country's soccer squad beat Algeria 2-0 in the waning seconds to force a one-game playoff on Wednesday that will determine which team qualifies for the 2010 World Cup.

You'll recall that Egyptian hooligans attacked Algeria's team as it arrived by bus to its Cairo hotel on Thursday. Video showed two or three Algerian players bleeding from the head and face; one held what looked like broken pieces of concrete in his hands - apparently what the mob was throwing.

Five members of the Algerian football team were injured by an angry mob in Cairo yesterday, just 36 hours ahead of a World Cup qualifier that now might be canceled.

The Algerian players were getting off a bus outside their hotel when a group of 200 Egyptians surrounded the bus and started throwing stones. Two players, Khaled Lemmuchia and Rafiq Hallish, were struck on the head, according to an Algerian member of parliament traveling with the team.

(Egyptian police, true to form, insisted that nobody had been hurt.)