Tweet me!| Egypt officials accuse Algerian football fans of assaulting Egyptians who attended a World Cup qualifier between the two nations in Sudan. The result of that is the recall of the Egyptian ambassador in Algeria. |
Egypt officials accuse Algerian football fans of assaulting Egyptians who attended a World Cup qualifier between the two nations in Sudan. The result of that is the recall of the Egyptian ambassador in Algeria.
Egyptian state media Thursday said the Egyptian ambassador in Algiers has been recalled for "consultations." Egypt's government says Algerians assaulted Egyptians after watching the Algerian team beat Egypt in Wednesday's match in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Around ten thousand Egyptian, nine thousand Algerian and sixteen thousand Sudanese fans watched the mach from the stadium.
Algeria's 1-0 victory in the tie-breaker match earned it qualification into the 2010 World Cup and shattered Egypt's hopes of advancing to the tournament. Egyptian fans told the French news agency that Algerians threw stones at their bus as they headed to Khartoum's airport.
The Egyptian government also summoned the Algerian ambassador in Cairo Thursday to express displeasure with the behavior of Algerian fans after the game.
Algeria advanced to the World Cup for the first time since 1986 after its 1-0 victory in Wednesday's game. That match was a playoff after Egypt won Saturday's game in Cairo, 2-0. Ahead of Saturday's game, Egyptian fans pelted a bus carrying Algerian players soon after their arrival in Cairo. Three players were injured and two of them played with head bandages. Clashes between Egyptian and Algerian fans after that game injured 32 people.
Cairo lodged a similar protest after Algerian fans attacked Egyptian businesses in Algiers on Saturday. The Algerians were angered by their team's 2-0 loss to Egypt in Cairo that day, a result that left both nations equal in their qualification group and triggered Wednesday's tie-breaker.
Wednesday's win sent thousands of people celebrating on the streets of Algiers, Paris and the French port city of Marseilles. France is home to a large Algerian community.
In contrast, Cairo was subdued after Wednesday's game, with only several hundred noisy fans protesting near the Algerian Embassy against the attacks on Egyptians in Sudan and Algeria.
The protest went until the early hours Thursday, but riot police cordon kept protesters away from the embassy.
Headlines in Cairo's Thursday newspapers reflected the soccer-mad nation's disappointment to reach the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, with front-page photos of tearful Egyptian players.
In another twist to the diplomatic crisis, the Sudanese foreign ministry summoned Egypt's ambassador to protest at Egyptian media coverage of an alleged lapse in Sudanese security, the ministry in Khartoum said.
Khartoum police spokesman Abdel Majid al-Tayeb earlier played down the level of violence after the game in which Egypt was defeated 1-0 and lost the chance to advance to the World Cup finals in South Africa next year.
"There were minor incidents, four people were lightly wounded," Tayeb, whose forces mounted a security operation for Wednesday's crunch decisive match, told a press conference.
"Algeria qualified and the dream is lost," bemoaned the red banner of the daily Al-Gomhuria. "The World Cup dream turned into ruins," said the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm daily.
Algeria will join Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Ghana from Africa in the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
Algerianamericans.com - November. 19, 2009
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