Egypt tightens security ahead of Algeria match

Egypt stepped up security for a decisive World Cup qualifier between Algeria and Egypt on Saturday, with police vowing tight protection for the Algerians whose bus was stoned when they arrived in Cairo.

Thousands of home fans, their faces painted in red, white and black and waving Egyptian flags, thronged the Cairo International Stadium hours before the highly charged match, which was due to kick off at 7:30 pm (1730 GMT).

A tight cordon was set up outside the ground, where around 2,000 Algerian fans were also expected among the capacity 70,000 crowd.

Press reports said police units would also be deployed throughout the stands as security was raised to highest-ever levels.

The challenge is tough for Egypt’s Pharoahs, who need to win by a three-goal margin to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and stop Algeria’s Desert Foxes from sewing up the African Group C qualifying place.

Despite official appeals for calm, tensions boiled over on Thursday when the Algerian team bus was stoned on its way from Cairo airport, with three players injured.

World football governing body FIFA ordered Egypt to guarantee security for the match after the attack.

Egyptian official daily Al-Ahram quoted a deputy interior minister, Abdel Rahim al-Qanawi, as saying police will undertake unprecedented security to safeguard the players in their hotel and on their way to the stadium.

“The Algerian team’s bus will be secured completely, in a way that never happened before with other teams,” he said.

One FIFA representative, Walter Gagg, confirmed to AFP that three Algerian players had sustained injuries, potentially ruling them out of the showdown.

“We saw that three players had been injured — Khaled Lemmouchia on the head, Rafik Halliche above the eye and Rafik Saifi on the arm,” Gagg said.

“These weren’t superficial injuries,” he stressed. “With the stitches needed, we will have to see if these players can play. The team doctor has still to make a decision on that.”

Gagg said Algeria’s goalkeeping coach had suffered concussion, and described the bus itself as in a “very bad way with broken windows and traces of blood on the floor”.

“The players were afraid, they were terrified,” he said.

For the Algerians, Egyptian security officials and the media added insult to the injuries by saying that the Algerian team faked the attack.

The Egyptian press reported that an initial investigation showed the Algerians had smashed the windows of the bus with emergency hammers.

Algerian press reports on Saturday said an angry crowd attacked homes of Egyptian workers at M’sila, in southeastern Algeria, after news of the stoning and graphic pictures of the players’ injuries were published in the media.

A group of young men ransacked a building occupied by managers of a cement works belonging to Egypt’s Orascom, El-Watan newspaper reported.

Police took the managers and their families to safety but “all flats in the residence were ransacked and looted” and a car was set on fire, the report said.

The newspaper Quotidien d’Oran said 14 police were hurt in clashes with the young men.

In Algiers, all streets leading to the Egyptian embassy were closed from Thursday evening and security measures installed at Egyptian companies, an AFP reporter said.

And in France’s southern port of Marseille, which has many residents of Algerian origin, security at the Egyptian consulate was boosted and 600 police officers flooded the city centre.

In Cairo the Algerian squad held a light training session on Friday under police protection, with captain Yazid Mansouri saying: “The players are standing firm and united.”

The rival national teams have a history of bad blood, with riots breaking out after Egypt defeated Algeria in a 1989 match in Cairo.

Algeria player Lakhdar Belloumi was tried in absentia and sentenced to prison in Egypt for allegedly seriously injuring the Egyptian team doctor with a bottle after that match.

Interpol issued an arrest warrant for Belloumi over the incident.

Egypt last qualified for the World Cup in 1990, and Algeria in 1986.