So, I'm not sure I want to go to this match now that I've read this.....I'd heard from everyone here that Algeria v Egypt was a bit of a grudge match but didn't know the history!
The World Cup 'hate match' is on again, and if it is anywhere near as bad as the last one it could keep Fifa's disciplinary experts busy – not to mention the police.
One goal on a bumpy pitch in Chililabombwe, northern Zambia, was enough to give Egypt victory in their penultimate qualifier today. When Hosni, player of the tournament in the last African Cup of Nations, scored it in the 69th minute millions celebrated back home in Egypt. It kept alive the African champions' hopes of taking one of the continent's five qualifying places in next summer's finals. All they have to do now is beat Algeria on 14 November, in an exact repeat of what they had to do 20 years ago.
They managed it in 1989, but there was so much trouble around the game that the post-match recriminations dragged all the way to this year. In April Interpol finally dropped an arrest warrant against one of the continent's greatest football heroes, Lakhdar Belloumi, scorer of the winning goal in Algeria's sensational 2-1 win over West Germany in the 1982 World Cup. At last he can travel outside Algeria again. He probably won't risk going to Cairo this week, though, because of what happened in 1989. He would be lucky to get out alive (Ant's edit....he was alleged to have glassed the Egyptian team doctor after the match and an international arrest warrant has been in force for him since that date until being withdrawn in June this year)
A point in Egypt would have taken Algeria to Italia 90, their third finals in succession. The build-up to the match was hostile, as the two countries already had a healthy dislike of each other.
"Get there early" was the message from Egypt's FA to the few foreign journalists who had travelled to Cairo, so they took us in by bus at 10.30am. For a 3pm kick-off. The ground was nearly full already, more than 100,000 packed in with more than four hours to go. At least 20,000 were wearing military uniform, and they joined the rest of the crowd in choreographed swaying to the rousing music blaring from giant speakers placed around the running-track. There were also a number of giant ornamental plants placed near the VIP area, which would become missiles for the Algerians after their 1-0 defeat.
"It was the first big game I ever went to watch with my father," recalls Mido, the former Tottenham and Middlesbrough striker. "There were 125,000 people in the ground, and we were behind the goal. I was only six, and I can remember Hossam Hassan's goal now. It was amazing."Algeria felt the referee had been biased, and when the final whistle went the officials were harassed and surrounded by the entire Algerian contingent, players, coaches, officials. Despite the best efforts of the police it still took the referee eight minutes to reach the safety of the dressing rooms.
The Algerians wanted somebody else to blame, so they turned to the VIP area and heaved plants, dirt and earthenware pots into the seats. Worse was to follow. At a post-match reception, Belloumi 'bottled' the Egyptian team doctor, who was blinded in one eye. Belloumi was back in Algeria when an Egyptian court later convicted him in his absence. He was sentenced to imprisonment and fined.
The incident further soured the relationship between the countries and two years later Egypt refused to send a team to the African Nations Cup in Algeria. They would have been kicked out of Fifa so eventually sent a youth team.
A long history of hatredWhy the hatred? Algerians and Egyptians have never warmed to each other, and they seem to like expressing their feelings through football. Egyptians are seen as snooty and aloof, and there was bad blood between the two countries in the late 1950s, when so many African countries – but not Egypt – were fighting for independence. In an excellent new book on African football, Feet of the Chameleon, Ian Hawkey tells the remarkable story of the FLN footballers, a team of top-division professionals who ditched their clubs in France and raised awareness of Algeria's claims for independence through football matches in north Africa, Asia and eastern Europe. Egypt would not play them.
There was more trouble in the 1970s, when Algerian police waded into Egyptian players and fans during a troublesome All Africa Games match between Libya and Egypt in Algeria. In the 1980s an Olympic qualifier between Algeria and Egypt was repeatedly held up by brawls. And even last season there was trouble at a club game, when Hossam Hassan, scorer of that goal in 1989, and his brother Ibrahim were both banned indefinitely by Fifa for their behaviour after the club they coached, Masri, lost in Algeria. Among other misdemeanours, Ibrahim Hassan assaulted the fourth official.
"When I hit the fourth official, I was trying to defend myself because he held my finger firmly and was about to break it!" said Ibrahim Hassan. "I will not apologise. I do not regret my reactions."
With the countries due to meet in Algeria in June this year (a 3-1 home win), it was time for diplomacy. Algeria's foreign minister started negotiations, the respective Olympic committee presidents came to an agreement, and persuaded the suitably compensated Egyptian team doctor to drop his case against Belloumi.
Both sides will hope for a more peaceful game in the next instalment, and with the stadium now modernised only 74,000 will be there. Algeria have played well and will fancy their chances, but if they come away with the result they need it could be yet more bad news for the Premier league's bottom club, Portsmouth. Nadir Belhadj and, for the first time, Hassan Yebda are in the Algeria team. If they make it to the World Cup finals this week they will be happy to get home safe and sound.
