UAFA Arab Club Cup

Al Arabi most likely won't be participating in the next Arab Club Cup, or any Arab Club Championships next year, according to a report by Al Kass. Upon arriving to Algeria, they were provided with a sub-part pitch to train on, and, during the match, they had a completely legitimate goal ruled out, and a very harsh penalty awarded against them towards the end of the game. After the match, Algerian fans attacked the team bus by pelting it with stones and setting off fireworks.

http://www.alkass.net/news_details.aspx?news_id=53598

 

It was the most despicable and disgraceful way to end a tournament. The entire series of events were unfortunate, and left many Kuwaiti citizens speechless. It's an extremely bitter pill to swallow, especially when considering the fact that the Algerians were received with warm hospitality in Kuwait.

Kuwait treated the Algerian fans, players and staff with complete kindness and respect. The least the Kuwaiti organizers expected, in return, was a similar treatment in Algeria. Instead, Al-Arabi SC were greeted with cruelty and violence from the very first day they arrived in Algiers.

Some of the Al-Arabi players and staff were invited to a talk show on Alrai TV, a few days ago. They described/shared every bad incident that they encountered in Algeria, which were aplenty. Even the Sheraton hotel staff acted unprofessionally. The team bus was attacked every time it left the hotel... Players were forced to train inside the actual hotel building, out of fear of getting assaulted by violent crowds that were waiting just outside, had they chosen to leave the hotel premises. And just when they thought things couldn't get worse, the match officials turned out to be complete and utter jerks. The main referee needs to hang his head in shame.

 

It's unfortunate that this happens to clubs and countries despite the respect and generosity that they would have, or have previously, shown to their hosts. We all know who the main culprits are when it comes to this. Arab countries in the Gulf are generally very hospitable towards visiting teams (there are exceptions, obviously), but it seems that some countries try to pull off these schemes *every* time they host a visiting team.

 

Algeria's ill-treatment of foreign fans and teams isn't something new. Back in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, they did the same thing to the Egyptian fans and national team, which prompted Egypt to respond with violence of their own when it was Algeria's turn to travel away from home. I remember the incident as though it was yesterday. The Egyptians are culturally/naturally very peaceful people, and it takes a lot of effort to make them vengeful. That just goes to show how aggravated they were by the poor treatment they received in Algeria.

Unfortunately, the Kuwaiti club members were very naive to think they'll be warmly welcomed by the Algerians.

Anyway, UAFA tournaments are a waste of time. Not only are they unrecognized by FIFA, but they're also part of the greater pan-Arab nationalist movement, which I think is chauvinistic to say the least. The only thing that matters to me is Kuwait and the Persian Gulf region. The only greater political entity I don't mind identifying with is the GCC. Apart from the immediate region, I'm not really interested in any political movement that attempts to link us with the countries of Northern Africa, especially those to the west of Egypt. It's time UAFA dismantles, in my opinion. If it was up to me, I'd form a Gulf-based football association that includes all six member states of the GCC, as well as Iran and Iraq.

Anyway, you're right about the GCC states being more hospitable than other Arabic-speaking countries, most of the time. Of course, there were a few exceptions to that general rule, but even those exceptions were never as bad as what normally occurs in the Maghreb nations. Although many people, from across the Persian Gulf, tend to criticize the GCC states for being inhospitable on some occasions, they don't realize how lucky they are for not being bordered to the likes of Algeria.

 

Useless competition. They should focus on getting the nations cup up and running before spending time on this.