Time fillers: How much can one stone cost you!!!

Ok, I know a lot of people maybe upset or even angry with me since the blog hasn’t been updated for a long time but believe me I haven’t forgot about it or something like that, it is just, as I said before, there is nothing new happening; add to this a very busy schedule in which I can’t find time to do my assignments.

In this post, I will discuss one of the most, if not the most, notorious incidents in our world cup qualification history; it is the stone incident.

It was the first round of the qualification for world cup 1994 held in the USA; we were grouped with Angola, Togo and Zimbabwe in group 3.

We kicked off with a win against Angola in Cairo with a 1-0 score then we conquered Togo in Togo 4-1, then we lost to Zimbabwe in Harare 2-1; in the fourth round we held Angola to a 0-0 score in Angola then we beat Togo again 3-0 then it was our final match against Zimbabwe in Cairo.

It was a must win match and We were leading 2-1 with goals from Ashraf Kassem and Hossam Hassan but then came something unexpected; Zimbabwe’s German coach Reinhard Fabisch (pictured) decided that Egypt will not win this game and he will make sure this happens whether through legal or illegal ways, he simply claimed that a stone coming from the Egyptian fans stands hit him and put a fake bandage saying that the stone wounded his head.

After the game ended with Egypt’s victory, FIFA used video replay of the match to see whether a stone was thrown or not and they ruled that the game should be replayed in a neutral ground because of fans violence.

The game was replayed in Lyon, France two months later and ended in a 0-0 draw so Egypt failed to qualify and the ticket to the next round of qualifications went to Zimbabwe who eventually crashed from the competition.

Whether a stone was thrown or not isn’t confirmed till today but the question that needs an answer is since when video replays are used by FIFA to force punishment on violent incidences in football matches? And if fans violence is punished by FIFA laws why didn’t anyone do something when we were attacked in Algeria by the fans and everything was thrown at us? Why did they just suspend the referee and forced a fine on the Algerian federation? Why didn’t they order the game to be replayed similarly?

It was a very unfair situation but If the incidence was true, why did this guy throw a stone in the time we were winning the game? I think this guy is a complete idiot to do such thing.

Anyway, if anybody is planning to attend one of the matches during the qualifications….please don’t throw anything!!!