Samir Zaher, head of the EFF to Echorouk:”Algerian-Egyptian Reconciliation irreplaceable but I will never apologize”

The Qatari authorities rushed during the past few days in order to activate the initiative of reconciliation between the Algerian head of Football federation Mohamed Raouraoua and the Egyptian Samir Zaher, head of the Egyptian Football Federation, in order to break the state of deadlock between the two countries since the 12th of November 2010, the date of Egyptian attacks on Algerian team just meters away from Cairo International Airport.

The incident drew worldwide condemnation and it was documented in pictures and sound thing which attracted attention of various international media.

 Qataris, headed by Mohamed Ben Hammam, adopted this initiative to reflect the leading role of Qatar in the Arab world, especially following their successful bid to host World Cup 2022 for the first time in the history Arab football.

Earlier this year, a number of initiatives for Algerian Egyptian reconciliation launched on TV channels and various media as failed, and there were any serious follow-up by stakeholders, especially as Samir Zaher insisted on the principle of refusing to apologize to Algerians for Cairo events, although he acknowledged their existence.

Samir Zaher’s decisions, misleading policy and propaganda led to those shameful events during and after the matches between the Algerian and Egyptian teams for the World Cup playoffs.

Mohamed Ben Hammam, head of the Asian Football Federation and Sheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa, head of the Qatari Football Federation seek to use their good relationship with both Mohamed Raouraoua and Samir Zaher in order to realize a true reconciliation on the sidelines of the Egyptian team’s presence in Doha on December 16 to play a friendly match against the Qatari team.

Zaher welcomes reconciliation

In this regard, Samir Zaher head of the EFF told Echorouk from Cairo, on Saturday that he welcomes this initiative put forward by Mohamed Ben Hammam, head of the AFF, valuing the step by this man calling it “ a good initiative” that is irreplaceable.However, he said that he will never apologize to Algerians.