Algeria's Al-Shabiba football team was greeted by an Egyptian security escort upon its arrival at Cairo International Airport on Wednesday, with players and team officials being taken directly from the airport to their respective hotels.
“What happened in our first match with them in Algiers could have happened anywhere in the world,” Hassan Hamdi, president of Egypt's Al-Ahly Football Club, said. “We will not allow such behavior to jeopardize the good relations between our two countries."
The president of the Algerian football club, for his part, thanked Hamdi for the "friendly reception" received by his team.
Limited clashes erupted between Egyptian and Algerian football fans after a World Cup play-off match–won by Algeria–held in Sudan last year. Weeks earlier, a bus transporting the Algerian national team in Cairo was attacked by stone-throwing Egyptian football fans.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
