A disturbing video of an unknown Algerian youth saying that his fellow countrymen would travel to Sudan only to hunt Egyptians down eventually turned out to be more than an empty threat. Thousands of Algerian so-called fans traveled to Sudan, supposedly to egg on their team from the stands against Egypt, but they weren't really there for the game. After Egypt lost the World Cup playoff match 1-0, the unlikely-looking supporters demonstrated that their real intention was not to back their team, but only to hurt Egyptians. Instead of celebrating their country's triumph, masses of Algerians holding knives, daggers and blades were indiscriminately chasing every single Egyptian. Men and women alike were horribly wounded. Much as the violent outbursts in Sudan's streets were staggering, they were not totally unforeseen. It was falsely reported that several Algerian fans were killed in Cairo after the Desert Foxes' 2-0 defeat to Egypt in the qualifiers last weekend, which inflamed Algerian hotheads three days before the Sudan trip. The Algerian young man, whose widely-circulated four-minute video was uploaded on Youtube.com a couple of days before the decider, promised an act of revenge, and indeed it was. Slaughters "We are traveling to Sudan to avenge the death of our people in your country (Egypt)," the young man, who came across as an impulsive football hooligan, said during the video. "Those who will fly to Sudan are from the worst class of our society.
"The unemployed and people who won't be missed are the kind of supporters I'm talking about. "We don't really care about the World Cup; we only want to settle the score. There will be slaughters in Sudan. "The Egyptians are still denying the murder of eight Algerian citizens, but we have photos of their corpses and these photos are no hoax." After Egypt beat Algeria on Saturday, Egyptian workers in Algeria were viciously attacked, hours before the release of the video which somewhat indicated that the situation would take a turn to the worse. “What you've heard of today (the assault on Egyptians in Algeria) is just the beginning. The diplomatic relations between Egypt and Algeria will soon be over. "There is no Arab brotherhood, there is only war and we are up to it," he concluded. Journalist and TV presenter Ibrahim Hegazi believes that this video clearly reflects the common Algerians' hatred of Egyptians. "I first refused to air this video, but after what happened (in Sudan) there is no point of hiding it," he said in his TV program on Nile Sports TV after Wednesday's game. "Apparently, this small clip shows the mindset of the Algerian public." Thank God We Lost
Al-Saqqa It's undoubtedly believed that the Algerian knifemen would have been more infuriated and the Egyptians could have well suffered heavy casualties if the Pharaohs had won the game. "I am stunned and shocked after what we've been through by the Algerians in Sudan," Egypt's veteran center-half Abdul-Zaher Al-Saqqa told FilGoal.com. "Thank God we lost. I can't believe what happened to us as players and to our supporters, it was like a horror film. "For the first time in my career, I am glad we didn't win because the ramifications would have been disastrous for us. "Some of our fans would have definitely lost their lives if Algeria had won. "The life of an Egyptian citizen is a lot more important than winning the World Cup title." The Egyptian players have all returned home safe and sound in the early hours of Thursday, after they were escorted to Khartoum Airport by Sudanese forces. Several hours later, the Egyptian fans flew back home too, but unfortunately many of them suffered serious injuries and permanent damages. A woman lost sight in one eye after she was hit by a stone, an Egyptian fan, Tarek, told Orbit TV.