Following the 18 November World Cup football game and subsequent attack by Algerian fans on Egyptian supporters, Doaa El-Bey heard voices calling on saner minds in Egypt and Algeria to end the war of words between the two states. But nobody else was listening The attack on Egyptians by Algerian fans in Sudan on 18 November was widely criticised in the press. Newspapers ran stories with pictures about injured fans after the conclusion of the World Cup qualifying match. Some writers called for taking measures as drastic as cutting diplomatic ties. Sawt Al-Umma , which described the plight of the Egyptians in Sudan as hours of horror, said, "178 injured, expel the Algerian ambassador immediately". Al-Osbou wrote, "The crack, the shock, squandering Egyptian dignity in Sudan". In Nahdet Masr, "MPs request a firm response". Al-Shorouk criticised President Hosni Mubarak's speech to parliament for mentioning the crisis implicitly. Al-Ahram blared, "Widespread anger from the Algerian attacks on Egyptians and Egyptian buildings" and Al-Wafd bannered, 'Special parliamentary session to respond to Algerian attacks on Egyptians in Sudan'. Amr Hamzawi noted the absence of sportsmanship and the failure to thank the national team for its efforts after the defeat. He was sorry for the hate campaigns launched by the media in both Egypt and Algeria which led to an attack on the Algerian bus taking the players to their hotel after the first match in Cairo and attacks against Egyptians and Egyptian interests in Algeria. All this was also reflected in the aggressive performance of the Algerian players in Wednesday's match in Sudan, and the attack on Egyptian fans by some fanatic Algerian supporters after the game. However, "the irresponsible media in Egypt and Algeria could not have succeeded had there not been wide-ranging sectors in both societies that behaved in a fanatical way in an attempt to show what was mistakenly described as love and affiliation to their country," Hamzawi wrote in the independent daily Al-Shorouk. While he expressed deep sadness for what happened before and after the two matches, Hamzawi stated that any talk about "Arab fraternity", "sharing the same destiny" and "facing a common enemy" is no longer useful at a time when reality shows that Arab states are in a state of difference, if not conflict. Thus, he concluded that we should recognise a susceptibility to fanaticism in Arab communities and try to seek out educational and informational tools to check it. "The collective state of hysteria that we have recently witnessed in Egypt and Algeria should be taken seriously. Its escalating nature could have serious repercussions and its repetition could be really dangerous," Hamzawi added. Mohamed Ibrahim El-Dessouqi asked why the Algerians hate Egyptians. Our concern over what happened in Sudan after Wednesday's match, which he decried as guerrilla warfare in the Sudanese streets, should not prevent us from answering this complex question. What made the question more pressing is that the Algerian behaviour after the match was blessed by Algerian officials and some Arab states. Thus we are not dealing with individual cases of hatred. However, in our search for an answer, the writer added, we should refrain from using rhetorical phrases like "historic relations" and "fraternal ties between the two states". These were suitable during the 1950s and 1960s. But now "we need a long and firm stand with ourselves and others before the chain of hatred shackles us without knowing the reasons for such hatred," El-Dessouqi wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. Nagah El-Sawi wondered why the Algerians behaved the way they did after they had won and what would they have done had they lost. He wrote that the Algerians were welcomed in Egypt when they came to play the first match on 14 November. The writer saw their fans in a hotel next to his home cheering for their county freely and under the protection of Egyptian security forces. However, El-Sawi partially blamed what happened on Egyptian officials who allowed the Algerian fans to return to their country after they ransacked parts of Cairo Airport without punishment. It was not the first time; officials also allowed an Algerian footballer who blinded an Egyptian doctor 20 years ago after another match, to leave Egypt without punishment. Thus, El-Sawi called on the political leadership to take a firm stand and treat the Algerians the same way they treat Egyptians. "We should stop reiterating rhetorical phrases like 'Arab fraternity' and 'sharing the same language and religion' which have become of no value today," he added in the weekly independent newspaper Sawt Al-Umma. Eman Anwar questioned how the situation deteriorated to such an extent. Sports and football matches have become tools for spreading hatred and revenge instead of a sign of a developed and civilised people. Football, which is supposed to narrow the gap between peoples, has become a tool for slander and attack with knives by Algerians against Egyptians. What happened and is still happening, as Anwar added, indicates a major imbalance in Arab-Arab relations. "Differences in the field of sport are just the tip of an iceberg of deeper and more serious differences that has caused a deterioration in the status of the Arab nation and took it to a dark tunnel," she wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. Nabil Rashwan started his article by hailing the national team and its performance in Om Durman. However, it is the media that failed the test because they spent the few weeks before the match pushing the team to win, although in football there is a winner and a loser. The media in both states, as Rashwan added in the independent daily Nahdet Masr, put the two teams and fans under psychological pressure. As a result, the stage was not properly set for the match. In addition, other factors like politics, business and special interests, were drawn into the game. Thus, a simple match turned into a war between the two states and opened old files including Egypt's role in freeing Algeria from occupation and the Algerian participation in the 1973 October War. "We have to acknowledge that the media awakened dormant sectarian strife, and that Arab-Arab relations have reached a state of deterioration to the extent that any flame can ignite war. We need to sit and consider inter-Arab ties," Rashwan wrote. Suleiman Gouda warned against responding to the mentality of the mob. Saner heads should now act to contain the casualties of this problem rather than aggravate it. The football match played in Sudan, as the writer added, should be put in its proper perspective. He differed with those who called for complaining to FIFA in the hope of preventing Algeria from reaching the World Cup or those who called for expelling the Algerian ambassador in Egypt. "Hooligans from both sides should not drag wise people into taking action that would punish both peoples," Gouda concluded in Al-Masry Al-Yom.
