World Cup and Pan-Arabism

This afternoon is the World Cup match between Algeria and the US. Being American, I know nothing about soccer (or "football"), and care even less. But the conversations I've had as the match approaches shed interesting light on the always fun issue of pan-Arab relations.

My conversations with a few cabbies can hardly be representative of 6.5 million Jordanians, or 300+ million Arabs, but it's all I have to go on for now. But Algeria, as the only Arab country with a team in the World Cup, commands the loyalties of many of the Jordanian's I've spoken to about the ongoing tournament. My driver today was taking the afternoon off to watch the match, and didn't mind dissing the American team in front of a passenger who had already identified himself as American.

But head over to Egypt, and the situation is different. Egypt and Algeria fought a very nasty qualifying tournament last fall, causing not only bad blood, but also a minor international incident. The Egyptian government, in a "bread and circuses" move, exploited historical tensions with Algeria during the qualifiers to distract the population from the more pressing failures of Egypt's leadership. Riots broke out, Egypt recalled its ambassador from the Algerian capital, and the Arab League had to get involved to try to patch things up. I'm really not sure where many Egyptians would come down on an Algeria-Israel matchup. So, while I'm not in Cairo to watch the game, I'd expect to see more American flags than Algerian over there tonight.

Then, there are the outliers, like the cab driver who told me yesterday that he's rooting for the Argentinean team. Go figure.