Egypt and Algeria: Much More Than a Football Match · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Who would have believed that a football match could cause such tension between two nations? But the truth is, the tension between Egypt and Algeria has reached an unexpected level. Many bloggers believe that the match has nothing to do with the trouble on the streets now and like me, many are really shocked that some of the well known media outlets, have misunderstood the whole affair – they still believe that supporters of the national teams of each country are demonstrating and fighting each other because of the result of a match. Here's a breakdown of how the situation escalated – in the words of bloggers.
After the match that took place in Egypt, Algerian newspapers reported that Algerians had been killed (which has been denied later on by the Algerian ambassador in Cairo). Those rumors caused several Egyptian sites in Algeria to be attacked; Egypt Air's office was damaged. More than 1,500 Egyptian workers were also reportedly attacked and taken as hostages in riots; also, the Egyptian Embassy had to be surrounded by Algerian security forces for protection.
Ihab Omar wrote in his blog El Journaljy about those rumors:
Later on, the Algerian ambassador denied that any Algerian was killed in Egypt. But as Inferad wrote in his blog, it seems that rumors and the waves of violence after them were unstoppable.
During, and after the match in Cairo, the tone of the Egyptian blogosphere was still calm. Bloggers like Nile Wise wrote, how it's just a football match, and people should not over react:
And blogs, like Inferad, believed that it was just the media in the two countries that has to be blamed. He asked people in the two countries not to believe everything they read and hear:
Meanwhile, other bloggers like Al Journaljy, admitted that there may be some violence acts that took place in each country against the fans of the other:
He then continued:
He also admitted that the Egyptian fans weren't any better than their Algerian counterparts, and that they almost did the same deeds before the match that took place in Cario.
And that's what prompted  Daily Barid write the following:
In fact all the above incidents can be considered as an introduction to what happened in Sudan last Wednesday. The Egyptian and the Algerian football teams were to play there one final match in order to decide the team that will  qualify for the World Cup that will be held in South Africa next year.
Some bloggers were expecting violence acts against the Egyptian fans in Sudan. And that's why Lokmet Eish called for security forces to protect the Egyptian players and fans there:
And the Sudanese did their best to secure the match with about 15,000 soldiers. But it turned out that even such a huge number of security forces was not enough. Zeinobia wrote about what happened in Khartoum in her blog:
She also wrote about the Egyptian fan who lost her eye due to this incident, and compared it to what happened 20 years ago when an Algerian football player caused another Egyptian fan to loose his eye too:
Also Bani Adam Maa Waqf El Tanfeez wrote here about what happened in Sudan. He also wrote about the videos published online that warned the Egyptians from going there, and those showing Algerian fans with knives in their hands:
He then continued:
And now it's official, the media, people in the streets, and the Egyptian government are all mad over what happened in Sudan.
Zeinobia wrote here about the reactions of Egyptian officials: