Round Two: Egypt & Algeria fans clash on the BBC again

The bitter feud between Egypt and Algeria has no signs of abating.

Just over a week ago, when Egypt forced Algeria into a World Cup playoff match after beating their great rivals 2-nil in Cairo, the BBC attempted to get to grips with the nature of the vicious and violence rivalry between the North African countries. In doing so, BBC radio invited an Egyptian and an Algerian fan onto the live airwaves to argue their side, but the interview soon broke down amid countering accusations of poisoning, inflicting self-harm and provocation from either side.

(See that story here.)

Since, Algeria went on to beat Egypt 1-nil in the playoff in Sudan and historically claim their spot at the 2010 World Cup, and after the game the BBC again invited the fans onto the radio in a second attempt to get a resolution between the pair. Unsurprisingly, round two also descended into complete farce.

Forwarding the Egyptian argument, Essam Marghani was immediately asked whether he was prepared to renege on his earlier position that the Algerian players had staged their own stoning, despite TV Footage to the contrary, as he had argued in their first interview. Mr. Marghani unrepentantly retorted “the final investigation just proved again that it was created within the Algerian team. The main objective was not to play in Cairo, but elsewhere… The bus was broken through the emergency hammers.”

Mourad Abid, the Algerian fan, furious with his peer’s response quickly interrupted “C’mmon man. How can you believe that… this man has nearly lost his mind!… Acknowledge the mistake!”

Things only got worse from there and the pair began a tit-for-tat name-calling and finger-pointing exchange which continued for several minutes.

The ridiculous BBC interview can be heard here.