Manama: An Egyptian wife has left her Algerian husband of three years and went into hiding after an altercation over a crucial football match between their native countries to be played next Saturday.
The Algerian man told the Egyptian embassy in Algiers that he had had a heated argument last Saturday with his wife about the 2010 World Cup decider between Algeria and Egypt, in which each spouse claimed that their native country would win and qualify for the finals in South Africa.
However, according to the husband, the wife became upset and afterwards left the family home, taking their only son with her and not informing anyone about her whereabouts.
The husband filed a police report about the missing wife and contacted the Egyptian embassy in Algiers seeking assistance.
Embassy officials promised to help and told him that the wife would not be able to leave Algeria with the son who could not be added onto her passport.
Algerian security authorities have also pledged support in the search for the missing wife.
Algerians and Egyptians have been engaged in a vitriolic standoff, ominously fuelled by partisan print and broadcast media and websites that have degraded the do-or-die clash between the Desert Foxes (Algeria) and the Pharaohs (Egypt) for a place among the Titans of football into the pettiest forms of chauvinism. Observers have been wondering whether the deep animosity in fact went beyond a football match into political issues.
Newspapers in both countries have been replete with articles aiming to boost local morale and to instil terror in the hearts of the "enemy".
An army of bloggers have exchanged jingoistic remarks and traded acid insults more than one month before the ball is timed to be kicked in Cairo under high security.
On the television front, remarks by Egyptian journalist Amr Adeeb about the ungratefulness of the Algerians were harshly rebuked by the Algerian print media and websites. Algeria, unlike Egypt, does not have private television stations.
"Why do Algerians hate us and despise so much? We had helped the Algerians so much during their war for independence and we sent teachers to teach them Arabic. Yet, they hate us so much without any reason. I would love to see an end to their arrogance and haughtiness," he said on his television talk.
However, Algiers-based Elcherouk daily accused Adeeb of transgressing respect lines and urged the Egyptian authorities to silence him. The paper's editorial sparked a wave of bitter and scornful remarks by Algerian fans targeting the character of Egyptian broadcaster and questioning the merits and purposes of the assistance offered by his country around four decades ago.
Efforts by peace activists from both countries have failed to appease the tension amid concerns voiced by the international football federation, FIFA, about physical clashes and skirmishes on match day. At least 2,000 Algerians are expected to attend the match in the 80,000-seat capacity stadium.
In Paris, the French foreign ministry warned its citizens in Algeria to stay home on November 14 to avoid possible "movement of masses" related to the football match. The French authorities fear that mass celebrations, in case of qualification, or demonstrations, in case of failure to qualify, could degenerate into violence.
