"Egypt vs. Algeria – the nasty politics of football"

Francis Ghilès
Senior Researcher, CIDOB

December 2nd 2009

On Thursday 12th November the bus ferrying the Algerian national football team from Cairo airport to the hotel was stoned by Egyptians – the police did not intervene before a number of players were seriously wounded, some even needed stitches. The Pharaohs won 2-0 against the Fennecs (desert fox) thus forcing a play- off which was to be played in the capital of Sudan, Khartoum, on 18th November. The outcome of that match would decide which team would qualify to represent Africa for the finals of the World Cup due in South Africa next year. Ugly incidents occurred between supporters of both teams after the first match which spread to three countries in the run up to the second match.

http://www.cidob.org/en/publicaciones/opinion/cidob/egypt_vs_algeria_the_nasty_politics_of_football