Pharaohs' Football: Egypt, Sports, and Politics

Christina Baghdady writes for EA:

Egypt is still recovering from celebrations over January's Africa Nations Cup. There was the minor achievement: winning the title for the seventh time and for the fourth time in a row. Then there was the major achievement: a crushing 4-0 victory over Algeria, who had three players sent off, in the semifinals.

If you're uncertain why news and sports commentators continue to discuss Egypt’s successes, and in particular the win over Algeria, with such national pride and vigour, just think Germany and England. That’s possibly a fair resemblance to Algeria and Egypt.

But not entirely. In most issues, bilateral relations between Egypt and Algeria are stable. Even in music, there is mutual pride: the two countries share the famous female artist "Warda", born in Algeria and finding fame in Egypt. However, sports encounters, especially football, always, without fail, lead to tensions.


The bitter rivalry goes back to the 1970s when, during an All-Africa Games match between Libya and Egypt in Algeria, local police forced their way amongst the Egyptian players and fans. Clashes between fans occurred at the Olympics, and relations soured further when Egypt beat Algeria to reach the 1990 World Cup Finals. Legendary Algerian footballer Lakhdar Belloumi attacked the Egyptian team doctor with a bottle, blinding him in one eye. Egypt responded by not sending their first team to the African Nations Cup held in Algeria in 1990.

Relations soured over the years, reaching a low point at last year's World Cup qualifiers played in Cairo and Khartoum. A reporter for an Algerian radio station claimed that 200 young people appeared just as the Algerian team arrived at the Cairo hotel and began to hurl stones at the bus. Four Algerian players claimed they suffered injuries. In Khartoum, 20,000 Algerian ‘Ultra’ fans went to the game for free. There were scenes of Algerian fans wielding knives and batons pre- and post-match, threatening to harm the Egyptians.

The violence happened far beyond the football pitch. After the Cairo match, the Egyptian tycoon Naguib Saweiris' company Orascom Telecom was attacked by Algerian locals. Windows were smashed; office equipment was destroyed looted or stolen. In France, violence erupted in Marseille with rioters smashing windows, hurling stones, and setting fire to boats. A police spokesman stated that more than 500 officers were deployed to control the havoc.

North Africans are passionate when it comes to football. Passion may even be an understatement. This is a case of national pride.

Football and politics

In a developing country where government statistics say that 20 per cent of citizens live below the poverty line, 28.6 per cent are illiterate, 40 per cent go through a divorce, and unemployment is high, one would think that Egyptians have enough issues to be concerned about instead of 90 minutes with a football.

Yet I remember during every World Cup, there is always one particular advertisement: "Eat football, sleep football, drink...." When Egypt play, 80 million supporters do just that.

Cars have Egyptian flags lining the car seats or the back windows. Radio and TV channels played patriotic songs. Nostalgic memories of the 1973 war come to mind.

When Egypt lost to Algeria in Sudan, thus failing to qualify for the World Cup, there was a national mobilisation.TV channels, media outlets and newspapers were more concerned with the attitude of the Algerian fans towards the Egyptian team than the result of the game. All Egyptians, from the President to the peasant, united in pride over their motherland.

The President's son Alaa Mubarak, who attended the game in Sudan with his younger brother Gamal, called the television show El-Beit Beitak (My home is Your Home). Emotional and claiming to "speak as a regular Egyptian citizen" and not as the President's son, he described the Algerian supporters as "militias who exercised terrorism" against their Egyptian counterparts. "These are not fans, these are terrorists," Mubarak said. "Thank God we've lost the game. Otherwise, it would have been a massacre."

Mubarak added that he and his brother saw Algerian "military airplanes" in the airport. The planes had carried armed supporters into Sudan, he said, boasting that he and his brother refused to fly out of Sudan first and leave the national team behind. He also called for a boycott of Algeria in the cultural, artistic and sports arenas. President Hosni Mubarak only broke his silence a few days after the game when he assured the People's assembly that the "dignity of Egyptians will be restored."

Dignity, nationalism, pride, and football: in Egypt, there is no degree of separation between the terms.