Algerian National Team News

[Al-khiyal]

Mubarak adds fuel to fire as football riots spread

November 22, 2009 -- Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ratcheted up the diplomatic tension with Algeria yesterday as football-related violence continued to spread across both countries. In a statement to parliament, he told cheering MPs that "Egypt will not be lax with those who harm the dignity of its sons". It is the president's first public intervention in a row that has seen thousands of protesters flood the streets of Cairo and Algiers and a wave of attacks against Egyptian targets in Algeria and vice versa. The trouble started when Egypt won a World Cup qualifier against Algeria in Cairo, setting up a play-off between the two sides in Sudan to decide which country would progress to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Last week Egypt recalled its envoy from Algeria after expressing its "outrage" at the treatment faced by Egyptian fans in Khartoum, where Algeria won 1-0. Despite appeals for calm by the general secretary of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, rioting has spread to both capitals. In Algiers the offices of Egypt's national airline were destroyed, while in Cairo security forces battled with protesters trying to reach the Algerian embassy, which was reportedly hit by firebombs. Parts of the city are under police lockdown. Mubarak's speech did nothing to calm the frenzy, as he swore to protect the rights of Egyptians. "The welfare of our citizens abroad is the responsibility of the country," he said. However, there were signs last night that a public backlash against the government's handling of the football storm was gaining strength. "Hosni Mubarak's thugs have beaten and killed more Egyptians than any hooligans," said Hossam el-Hamalawy, a journalist and opposition activist.

[Al-khiyal]

Egyptians, Algerians celebrate together in Canada

OTTAWA, November 22, 2009 -- On one university campus in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, Algerian fans cheered their players on toward victory against Egypt in an intense rendezvous that eventually qualified Algeria to compete in the World Cup 2010, next year in South Africa. It was a display of patriotism rarely seen by Canada’s Arabs publicly. On November 18, Egyptian university students in Ottawa mourned the loss, or rather the dream that is yet to be achieved. With powerful chants strong enough to vibrate walls, the Egyptians could not help but continue chanting their chants and raising their flags even following the national team’s 1-0 loss to Algeria in Sudan. The plan was to celebrate and to chant, win or lose, the students said. Elsewhere on the university, a group of Egyptian students decided to join the Algerian students in their celebrations. Words of congratulations were exchanged. New chants, referring to both Egypt and Algeria were sounded out by the fans, which were accompanied by the traditional tabla drum rhythms. Joining together in what was arguably the most ironic moment, considering the rumors of Egyptians being attacked in Sudan following the match and Egyptian demonstrations that led to violence in Cairo. In Canada, this seemed not of concern for both Egyptian and Algerian fans, who sang together: “Masr! Jazayer” or “Egypt, Algeria!” Yasmin Abdulgawad, an Egyptian student in Ottawa, said that the motive behind joining the Algerian celebrations was “to show them that we are civilized and have a big heart.” Sarra Chalabi, President of the Maghrebian Association at the university, was “impressed” with the joint support. She stated that she “really appreciated it as it was proving it was just a game.” In the joint celebration, hope for better relations between Egypt and Algeria was partly restored. However, the question that yet remains is will this restoration resonate over lands and seas, reaching North Africa? When asked about future relations between Egypt and Algeria, both Egyptian and Algerian students are concerned about the violence that has surrounded the qualifying matches. Abdulgawad loses her optimism. saying that these violent events are “going to be the trigger for realizing that the Arab dream is gone.” She expressed her disdain towards dragging international relations into the sport. On a similar note, Chalabi condemned the violence surrounding the matches. In acknowledging that Egyptian-Algerian diplomatic relations have been threatened, she acknowledges that “Algerians do not want any Egyptian or Egyptian company in Algeria anymore” and believes Egyptians feel the same way towards their Algerian counterparts. Both students admit, however, that Ottawa has not been impacted by the violence, although all have been emotionally influenced by the events. Relatively peaceful relations between Egyptian and Algerian university students in Ottawa are expected to continue despite the violent protests in North Africa.

[Al-khiyal]

Why French Algerians' football celebrations turned into a battle

November 22, 2009 -- As the French nation prepared for the crucial World Cup qualifying match against Ireland on Wednesday evening, the streets of Paris were already in carnival mood long before the kick-off in the Stade de France. From 8.30pm onwards, throughout the city football fans waved flags, blocked traffic, hooted horns and sang songs of celebration. The party atmosphere clearly bemused newly arrived tourists and Irish fans on their way to the match. Most confusingly, with their green, white and red flags and football songs in Arabic, these supporters were obviously not French. They were in fact Algerians – several thousand of them – who were celebrating a 1-0 victory nearly 3,000 miles away in Khartoum. More specifically, the Algerians were celebrating that they had, for the first time since 1986, qualified for the World Cup. As the final whistle blew in the match against Egypt, there was near-delirium across Paris. As the evening went on, more than 12,000 Algerians poured on to the Champs Elysées, which was closed to traffic as youngsters danced on the roofs of cars, chanting "One, two, three, Vive l'Algérie", and throwing fireworks into the dank November night. "I can't believe it," I was told by Samia, a 20-year-old student. "I've never seen anything like it. It's not just about football. It has to be about something else."

About midnight it became clearer what that something else might be. Armed police had by now gathered around the Arc de Triomphe, trying to break up the crowds. They were met with taunts, stones and fireworks. The party soon degenerated into a riot and the cries of "Vive l'Algérie" were replaced by the familiar battle cry of "Nique la police" (**** the police). The police responded with teargas and baton charges. There were 60 arrests, and similar scenes in Lyon and Marseille. The violence carried on and by Friday morning the police reported that more than 200 cars had been burnt in the suburbs of Paris. On Thursday night, I watched standoffs between youths armed with sticks and Robocop-style police in Place de Catalogne and Rue de L'Ouest. Suddenly it looked for a brief moment as if France might be facing a re-run of the riots that ripped through the country in the autumn of 2005. The sourness surrounding the Algerian victory seemed such a long way away from the famous "rainbow" French team of 1998 that beat Brazil in a glorious World Cup final at the Stade de France. That team brought together a generation of players who all had their origins outside France – including Youri Djorkaeff (whose family came from Armenia), Lilian Thuram (French Caribbean), Bixente Lizarazu (Basque) and Patrick Vieira (Senegal). The key image, which went across the world, was of the face of Zinédine Zidane – an Algerian born in Marseille – being lit up in red, white and blue across the Champs Élysées under the rubric Zidane Président. The new tolerance and comradeship was known as L'Effet Zidane. This moment was hailed as the beginning of a new era in French cultural life.

Eleven years later, that moment seems to belong to a very distant past. Indeed, the divisions in French society seemed to have hardened since then. In 2005, at the height of the riots, Nicolas Sarkozy, then minister of the interior, famously added fuel to the fire by describing the rioters as racaille (scum). Meanwhile, films such as Michael Haneke's Hidden – which dealt with the repressed memory of a notorious night of violence against Algerians in Paris – have revealed the deepening inner tensions at the heart of 21st-century society. None of this has been forgotten by the youths who were out in force on Wednesday night. But the anger on show was not just about football and racism. It also stems from the fact that many Algerians, living in France or Algeria, have never really freed themselves from their longstanding love-hate relationship with France. More precisely, during the years of the French occupation, which began in 1830, Algeria was no ordinary colony, but an integral part of France with the same status as Alsace or Brittany. To be an Algerian was therefore – at least in theory – to be in effect a Frenchman. All too often in practice, as generations of Algerians have discovered, it is to be treated as a second-class citizen. Worse still, to be an Algerian is to be a bicot or mélon – racist terms for Muslims (and all of which I overheard in the mouths of white Parisians on the Métro on Wednesday night).

The history of French Algeria is further complicated by the fact that the country was also home to several million European settlers known as pieds noirs. The pieds noirs felt that Algeria belonged to them as much it did to the Arab and Berber population. When France granted independence to Algeria in 1962, however, this community was forced to leave Algeria for France – the mother country that they felt had betrayed them. It is the bitterness of the pieds noirs that has filtered down to the vicious anti-Algerian racism of contemporary France. The story of Algerian independence is not a happy one. Throughout the 1990s a civil war raged between the government and Islamic terrorist groups. Conservative estimates reckon that 200, 000 Algerians were killed. In 2002 President Abdelaziz Bouteflika offered an amnesty to the fighters. Since then, Algeria has been trying desperately to reassure the outside world that normality is being established. But the traces of the civil war are clearly visible these days in the streets of the capital, where security and tension are still high. In the former pied noir district of Belcourt, the house of the writer Albert Camus is now a mobile phone shop. Camus himself is despised by locals – when I was there a few weeks ago he was variously described to me as a filthy colonialist, a racist and a Frenchman.

The targets of the Islamists were journalists, writers, artists, musicians, all those who were perceived to belong to the French-speaking elite of the country. Downtown Algiers is French-designed, truly beautiful and deserves every bit of its title as "Paris in Africa". But it is an illusion. "On the one hand, France means for us Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," I was told by Fatiha, a university teacher, "but somehow that model never came to Algeria. So this place might look like France, but in reality it is the opposite. We cannot leave here. We have no money or visas. So really Algiers is a prison." It is this mixture of desire and frustration that best defines the bond between France and Algeria. It also explains why all attempts at reconciliation are so fraught. In 2001 a France-Algeria football match, a friendly meant to establish brotherhood between the two nations, broke down into pitch invasions and riots. When I interviewed Zidane about this for Observer Sport Monthly in 2004, he described it as the worst moment of his football career. Most damaging of all to him were the chants "Zidane – Harki". This is indeed a deadly insult: the Harkis were the Algerians who had fought for the French against their side and who are nowadays considered as traitors in their own communities. "The problem is that Algerians cannot forget their past," I was told by one of them in a bar on Wednesday night, "but they must also learn that their fury is dangerous. No one knows where it will lead." But what is certain, however, is that, as France and Algeria prepare for South Africa 2010, there will be two very different versions of the World Cup to be played out in the streets of France.

[Al-khiyal]

Qualifiés pour le mondial 2010, les Verts sont les nouveaux héros de l'Algérie

Dimanche 22 Novembre 2009 -- Ils ont survolé leur groupe en qualifications et dominé l’éternel rival égyptien. En battant l’Egypte mercredi à Khartoum en match d’appui pour la qualification du Mondial 2010 par un but à zéro, les Verts ont frappé un grand coup sportif, médiatique et émotionnel. Ils ont qualifié le pays au Mondial après 24 ans d’absence et gagné la sympathie de millions de personnes en Algérie, en Afrique et dans le monde arabe. Depuis cet exploit, les jeunes joueurs de l'équipe nationale sont devenus les nouvelles stars du football africain et arabe. Leur qualification a été saluée dans le monde entier, qui a applaudi le renouveau des Verts et des joueurs techniques, rapides et volontaires qui jouent dans de grands clubs en Europe. L'Algérie est le seul pays arabe qualifié à la Coupe du Monde. Après avoir longtemps adulé des footballeurs de talents européens et brésiliens, les jeunes algériens ont désormais leurs stars et leurs idoles locales. Des jeunes joueurs qui leur ressemblent et qui portent des noms et des prénoms familiers. « Avant, les maillots qui se vendaient le plus étaient ceux des stars italiennes, anglaises, brésiliennes, argentines où françaises. Maintenant, ce sont les maillots de l’équipe nationale qui sont les plus demandés », affirme le gérant d’un magasin de vêtements de sports à Alger. L’engouement pour les maillots des Verts est dû en grande partie au parcours des protégés de Saâdane dans les qualifications au Mondial 2010. Le succès historique et épique contre l’Egypte mercredi dernier à Khartoum a permis aux camarades de Ziani de conquérir le cœur de tout le peuple algérien, avide de victoires et de succès. Des millions de personnes ont accueilli les joueurs jeudi à leur retour de Khartoum. Un accueil digne d’une équipe qui a gagné la Coupe du Monde. En battant l’Egypte alors qu’ils étaient diminués physiquement, après avoir été agressés le12 novembre au Caire par des supporters égyptiens, les joueurs de l’équipe nationale ont prouvé au monde entier que les jeunes algériens sont capables de relever des défis, de réaliser des conquêtes sportives. Ils sont les nouveaux héros de l’Algérie.

[Al-khiyal]

« La qualification de l’Algérie au Mondial est indiscutable », selon la FIFA

Dimanche 22 Novembre 2009 -- « La qualification de l’Algérie au Mondial est indiscutable », a déclaré, dimanche 22 novembre, le secrétaire général de la Fédération internationale de football (FIFA), le Français Jérôme Valcke. Après son humiliation par l’Algérie mercredi dernier à Khartoum (Soudan) dans le match d’appui pour la qualification au Mondial, l’Egypte vient de recevoir une nouvelle claque. Cette fois, c’est la FIFA qui remet les Pharaons à leur place. Le « rêve égyptien » de rejouer la rencontre à cause de présumées agressions de leurs supporters à Khartoum s’évaporent. Depuis mercredi soir, des responsables et des médias égyptiens tentent de faire croire à leur public que la rencontre allait être rejouée. But : calmer la population qui n’a pas digéré la défaite face aux Verts. M. Valkce s’exprimait devant la presse à Dubaï, en marge du Mondial de « beach ball ». Il a indiqué que « la rencontre s’est déroulée normalement et aucun incident notable pouvant influer sur le résultat n’a été enregistré ». Pour le responsable de la FIFA, les évènements qui ont suivi la fin du match « n’avaient pas influé sur le résultat de la rencontre et seront étudiés sur la base des rapports de la commission d’organisation et des arbitres de la rencontre. La FIFA n’est pas responsable des évènements qui s’étaient produits en dehors du stade à la fin du match », a-t-il précisé.Par ailleurs, M. Valcke a félicité le Soudan pour la réussite de l’organisation de cette rencontre. « Nous saluons les efforts des responsables soudanais pour le bon déroulement de ce match », a-t-il dit. Le responsable de la FIFA a ajouté qu’il est encore tôt pour parler de sanctions contre les fédérations égyptienne et algérienne. «Nous allons étudier les rapports des matchs du Caire et de Khartoum entre les deux équipes », a-t-il expliqué.

[Al-khiyal]

Venomous headlines in Egyptian media fed soccer fans' anger with Algeria

CAIRO, November 22, 2009 (AP) — Angry soccer fans rampaged through a posh diplomatic neighborhood in Cairo over the weekend, smashing shop windows and shouting obscenities in a frenzy fed by venomous headlines that portrayed Algerians as barbaric terrorists with a history of violence. Egyptians were infuriated by media reports alleging their fans were brutalized by their Algerian rivals after Algeria won a playoff match Wednesday in Khartoum, Sudan, to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Egypt's government — often bemoaned by its people as repressive and indifferent to their suffering under searing poverty — appears to have seized on the furor to demonstrate some unity with its citizens. Instead of the usual crackdown on demonstrations, authorities allowed crowds to surge into the streets near the Algerian Embassy and vent their anger in riots overnight between Thursday and Friday.

The troubles began when crowds in Cairo hurled stones at the Algerian team's bus before a first match here on November 14, injuring three players. Egypt won 2-0, forcing the playoff. And in the following days, mobs in Algeria ransacked the offices of Egyptian companies. After the second match in Khartoum, Egyptian newspapers unleashed stirring headlines about Egyptian fans being attacked by machete-wielding crowds — allegations never confirmed. Sudanese police said there were only a handful of light injuries.

"Barbaric attacks on Egyptian fans in Khartoum," read one headline in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. "Algerians chase Egyptian fans with knives and machetes," said another. "Algeria: a legacy of blood, hatred and a history of violence" read another headline in an apparent reference to the civil war between Islamic extremists and Algerian government forces that killed up to 200,000 people in the 1990s. One Egyptian TV program invited viewers to express an opinion about whether Algeria might even be in league with Israel *. Some Egyptians even claimed Algerians are not real Arabs or Muslims.

One of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's sons, a businessman who rarely speaks in public, took the unusual step of phoning in to a television talk show and delivering a 40-minute rant. Alaa Mubarak, who attended the match in Khartoum, called on Egypt to respond to the Algerians' "terror, hostility." "It is impossible that we as Egyptians take this. We have to stand up and say, 'Enough,'" he said. "When you insult my dignity ... I will beat you on the head."

The Egyptian-Algerian soccer rivalry — and the violence that goes with it — dates back decades. And commentators had predicted trouble days before the first of their two matches. A similar face-off in 1989 ended in rioting in the stadium after Egypt beat Algeria 1-0 to qualify for the World Cup. In the melee, an Algerian player seriously injured an Egyptian team doctor with a broken bottle. This time around, Egypt's government escalated the dispute to a diplomatic incident. Egypt summoned Algeria's ambassador to protest the attacks on Egyptian businesses in Algeria after the first match and recalled its own ambassador for consultations.

President Hosni Mubarak even entered the fray, declaring in an address to parliament Saturday that Egypt would not tolerate "those who hurt the dignity of its sons." The outpouring of rage in the streets of Cairo was a rare sight in a country where political demonstrations are few and heavily suppressed by security forces. "The regime is just allowing people to vent their anger ... and then basically encouraging the media to vent the anger," said Hisham Qassem, a leading human rights activist and newspaper publisher. "It's a very good national distraction."

More than 40 percent of Egypt's nearly 80 million people live on less than $2 per day, according to the United Nations Development Program. Qassem said the soccer flap was a rare opportunity for Egypt's entrenched one-party leadership, normally accused of ignoring its people's problems, to show solidarity with indignant fans while ensuring things did not spin out of control.

Some analysts speculated the soccer tensions provided an acceptable outlet for frustrations over the repression by both nations' governments and the limited avenues for expressing them. Media outlets and commentators, like the president's son, talked of the damage Algeria had done to Egypt's "dignity," which seemed to point to a broader preoccupation that Egypt's influence in the Arab world may be diminishing.

***

* Algeria in league with Israel? It is not Algeria that helps the Israelis to starve Palestinians by keeping the Rafah Border Crossing closed, under armed Egyptian military guard. The Egyptian media only has to look at its own government to understand 'who is in league with Israel'.

[Al-khiyal]

Matches amicaux :
L'Algérie choisira entre l'Italie, l'Angleterre, la France et la Croatie pour préparer le Mondial

Algeria, top European squads to play World Cup practice friendlies

November 22, 2009 -- Algeria coach Rabah Saadane will choose between England, Italy, Croatia and France for two World Cup practice friendlies in March and June of 2010, Tout sur l'Algérie reported on Saturday (November 21st). In related news, Algeria is working to establish an Algerian sports TV channel before the 2010 World Cup, to provide "good coverage of the world event, particularly since our team has realised the dream and will be present in South Africa", Echorouk quoted Secretary of State for Communications Azzedine Mihoubi as saying on Saturday.