Egypt press says Algerian team faked bus attack

Egyptian newspapers charged on Friday that Algerian players faked an attack on their bus as they arrived for a World Cup qualifier, further inflaming the atmosphere ahead of the crunch weekend tie.

An Algerian member of parliament who was travelling with the team had said five players were injured when home fans hurled stones at the bus as it travelled from the airport to the team hotel on Thursday.

In Algiers, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci “strongly condemned” the injuries sustained by “several” players and demanded that Egypt take all measures to guarantee the security of the delegation.

But Egypt’s leading state-owned daily Al-Ahram charged on Friday that it was the Algerian players, not stonethrowers, who had caused the damage to the bus.

“The bus carrying the team from the airport to the hotel was at the centre of a strange incident in which some of the players started to smash the vehicle’s windows claiming that they were the target of stonethrowing,” the paper reported.

The independent daily Al-Shuruq went further, saying the whole episode was a “complete fabrication.”

Citing a “senior security source,” the paper said the windows of the bus were smashed “from the inside not the outside as claimed by Algerian team members.”

It accused the players of a “complete fabrication intended to serve as an excuse in the event that they lose” Saturday’s key decider for next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa.

The independent Al-Masri Al-Yom newspaper acknowledged that some “kids” had thrown stones but charged that the Algerian players had then put on a “display of histrionics pretending to be scared and injured, and smashing up the bus’s windows and seats.”

The state-owned Al-Gomhuriya said the players had even assaulted the bus driver.

The reporting was likely to further poison the build-up to Saturday’s game. The pre-match atmosphere in Egypt had already surged to feverish heights amid an unprecedented level of tension between the North African rivals.

Algeria can afford to lose Saturday’s match by a one-goal margin and still qualify for the World Cup. A two-goal defeat would force a decider in Khartoum on November 18.

Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki had specifically called for responsible coverage by both countries’ media as the two governments issued joint appeals for calm.

Egyptian and Algerian media “hold a responsibility in this regard … and must work to maintain the strong ties between both countries and should not fuel disagreements that are unrelated to sports and sportsmanship,” Zaki said.

On Thursday night just outside Cairo, Algeria’s “king of rai” Cheb Khaled performed alongside Egyptian star Mohammed Munir to a packed audience of nearly 45,000 people, according to organisers.

“Long live Egypt, Arab country, long live Algeria, Arab country,” Cheb Khaled shouted to the crowd, with little apparent impact on home fan passions ahead of the game.

“It’ll be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” said 19-year-old student Aya Samir Azab. “We’ll set the stadium on fire,” said 24-year-old engineer Mohammed Ahmed.

Around 70,000 Egyptians are expected to pack the stadium on Saturday. Around 2,000 tickets have been allocated to Algerian fans.