Showdown in Sudan

Michael Collins Dunn has been doing an excellent job covering the Great Schism now tearing northern Africa apart: the Algerian-Egyptian football war, which has reached levels of antagonism rarely seen outside East Jerusalem. Emotions are boiling over all around, the press in both countries is up in arms, Internet activists and hackers are wreaking havoc online, and just before the last game the Algerian team was physically attacked in Cairo, their tour bus smashed and three players injured. FIFA issued a warning, but the Egyptian Football Association promptly responded that the perfidious Algerians had staged the entire event to avoid the whipping they received today, 2-0.

One more game is required to decide who qualifies for the World Cup, Les Verts or The Pharaos, and it will be played on November 18 in Khartoum — an appropriate choice of venue, given Sudan’s proven capacity to absorb massive internal warfare.