CAIRO: Winners of seven African football titles, Egyptians are bitterly reduced to spectators as they watch on-pitch foe Algeria represent Arab nations at the World Cup in South Africa.
“It should have been us!” said an inconsolable Ibrahim Mohammed, 39, still distraught months after Egypt’s failure to qualify against Algeria.
Algeria’s Fennecs pipped the Pharaohs in a play-off in Sudan after both teams were tied on the same points and same goal difference at the end of their group campaign.
The Algerian team bus was attacked by Egyptian fans in Cairo ahead of the first qualifier and violence also erupted in Khartoum after Algeria won the play-off, sparking diplomatic tensions between the fellow north African countries.
“Watching them just reminds me that we didn’t qualify. Algerians do not represent the Arab world. They humiliated us and insulted us. They can’t play in our name,” said Ibrahim Sakhir, an Egyptian football supporter in Cairo.
“I would have loved for us to be there,” said another fan, Fadi Heikal.
In contrast to the all-out media war between Egypt and Algeria during the qualifiers, Cairo papers were restrained when reporting on Algeria’s 1-0 defeat to Slovenia on Sunday.
Most papers, including the state-press, did however cheekily place the shot of Algerian goalkeeper’s Fawzi Chaouchi’s miss on their front page.
But some did bite the bullet and decide to support their fellow Arab team.
“We have a good relationship with Algeria, it’s irresponsible media who tried to ruin our ties,” said Khaled Safa, who will be supporting Algeria when they face England on Friday.
The former head of the Egyptian Football Association and current FIFA executive committee member Hani Abu Rida said he was “very sad” that Egypt is absent from the games.
“Our aim is to make a strong showing in Brazil in 2014,” he told the independent daily Al-Shorouk.
