Belloumi to Echorouk: “Goalkeeper Kadri was responsible for eye injury suffered by Egyptian doctor in 1989”

The former Algerian football star Lakhdar Belloumi reveals in an exclusive interview with Echorouk secrets hidden for almost 20 years, concerning the affair of the Egyptian doctor who sustained a serious eye injury during a brawl between players of the Algeria squad and zealous Egyptian supporters in the lounge of a Cairo hotel in 1989 on the occasion of qualifying matches for the 1990 World cup competition.

• Belloumi stressed that he had absolutely nothing to do with the eye injury suffered by the Egyptian doctor on account of flying glass because, he said, he was not at the time of the incident in the hotel’s lounge but rather in the hotel’s lift in the company of then national team coach Abdelhamid Kermali.
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• He explained that he had been wittingly and wrongly targeted by the Egyptians as he was the only Algerian known abroad among all the local Algerian players who played the qualifying match against Egypt.
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• According to Lakhdar Belloumi, the Egyptians amplified this affair with the aim of diverting the attention of the public opinion away from the football masquerade at the Cairo stadium during the Egypt – Algeria qualifier which saw the partial Tunisian referee Benassar offering a winning goal to the Egyptian squad despite a glaring offside position.
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• Furthermore, Belloumi revealed that all the players of the Algeria squad present at the hotel during the incident, had testified before the Algerian justice that it was the former Fennecs’ goalkeeper namely, Kamel Kadri, who was solely responsible for the eye injury inflicted involuntarily on the Egyptian doctor.
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• Belloumi pointed out that his wrong involvement in this woeful affair had strongly affected him morally for many years, especially after the issuance by Interpol of an International arrest warrant against him, he said.
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• This, he said, prevented him from traveling outside the national territory for several years on end.
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• Finally, Lakhdar Belloumi emphasized that the credit for the happy ending of this long drawn – out affair should be extended to President Abdellaziz Bouteflika who succeeded in finding a breakthrough to the issue in less than a week’s time as this nagging affair had remained in abeyance for almost 20 years.
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