6 - 12 September 2001
Issue No.550
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 6 - 12 September 2001 Issue No.550 |
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Formally laid to rest
Whatever slim hopes Egypt had of a World Cup appearance have been dashed. Alaa Shahine details the not-so-happy ending
It's official: Egypt is out of next year's World Cup and will have to wait another four years before trying again. FIFA slammed the door firmly in Egypt's face after rejecting an appeal to have a crucial qualifier against Algeria replayed.
The decision, taken unanimously at a meeting of the competition's organising committee in Zurich on Friday, meant the players will have to watch football's most prestigious showpiece on TV, a habit broken only twice since the competition began in 1930.
Even diehard optimists thought the decision was inevitable. After viewing a videotape of the match, the FIFA committee, headed by UEFA President Lenhart Johanssen, concluded that although the match was stopped for 15 minutes after Algerian supporters threw water bottles and stones onto the pitch in Annaba, none of the players or the referee were injured and the match resumed till its conclusion, all justifiable reasons, in FIFA's view, for not entertaining thoughts of a rematch.
However, Egypt's national coach Mahmoud El-Gohari was hoping for a happier ending. "The decision came as a shock to me," El-Gohari told the Nile Sports Channel shortly after the decision was announced. "We were expecting FIFA to apply its Fair Play slogan after Algerian violence marred the event. How can you continue a match like this?"
"Everybody saw what happened," El- Gohari continued. "Assistant coach Alaa Nabil was hit by an object thrown from the stands and the referees were seen to take refuge in mid-pitch." He added, "We were expecting FIFA to atone for its mistake in 1993 when it awarded Zimbabwe a replay against Egypt in a 1994 World Cup qualifier for a far less serious incident."
Egyptian Football Federation member Hisham Azmi echoed similar sentiments. "I feel that FIFA's Fair Play slogan has become just a flag carried by children on the pitch," he told BBC. "The match did not start under normal conditions. The Egyptian flag was burnt and the crowd kept whistling during the playing of the national anthem." There was also crowd trouble following the match when Algerians stoned the players' bus.
"This sets a bad precedent at home since fans might now think they can act in an intimidating manner and escape with only a fine and a possible ban on some home games."
However, FIFA deemed the incidents as not "affecting the match's result." A statement on FIFA's official Web site confirmed that the bureau "closely studied a video recording of the incidents and agreed with the reports from the match commissioner and the referee that no object thrown from the stands had struck a player and thus the outcome of the match was not affected."
Had the match been replayed, Egypt would have had to beat Algeria by three goals in order to finish atop its group and land a World Cup berth.
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