Bob Bradley....

[HL]

Bob Bradley has been in my thoughts a lot recently.

I looked up his current status in unstable Egypt and this is what i found.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCont...-exit-rum.aspx

AND THIS:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/etick...ge=Bob-Bradley

[Jangle]

............?????

[HL]

check again!

[Paul Marin]

Bob Bradley has been in my thoughts a lot recently.

I looked up his current status in unstable Egypt and this is what i found.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCont...-exit-rum.aspx

AND THIS:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/etick...ge=Bob-Bradley

No question, he has to be careful.

[Peter R]

The year before the uprising I was offered a job in Egypt which reality didn't allow me to accept; wife at home and a young son home didn't allow for that... I really didn't seriously consider it for those reasons so refused... Four months after I would have started there was the uprising; all the employees of the institution (a school) that offered me the job were moved to the "Red Sea" or somewhere like that... they did have a contingency plan in place for employees...

That kind of excitement I could do without.

Security is probably offered to Bradley but... you never know.

A friend described his experience attending an African Cup of nations match in Egypt... a venture to a football match in Egypt is not for the faint-hearted. He says there were over 100,000 people in a stadium with an 80,000 capacity. Even though he had a ticket with a seat number etc. by the time he got in, and he only got in after the gates were closed when a mass of people broke down the barriers and a wall of people rushed in, his seat had been taken.

He stood for the entire match among a mass of people; he said if he lifted his foot for whatever reason, he couldn't put it back down as another foot had taken its place. Utter chaos!

That was the year (2009) when Egypt and Algeria almost went to war over their football clashes. When you read about the behaviour of these teams (political strife aside) it is unbelievable that FIFA still continues as the international regulator of football... Both those countries IMO should have been given several years holiday from international ball for fans' behaviour, players' behaviour, the corruption associated with overselling tickets and the list goes on.

I'm not sure Bradley knew what he was in for when he accepted the job.

[Peter R]

BTW, I was always a fan of North African football from 1978 when Tunisia qualified for the WC... I don't know the history but I believe North African teams made inroads into the WC before their counterparts sub-sahara.

Anyway, I do know that Algeria qualified in 1982 as well. I visited Algeria in 1983 and I had never witnessed such a passion for football anywhere in my life, not JA, not France where I spent a year in the late 70s. On every street corner, with no exaggeration, wherever there were two or more boys together, they were playing football or juggling a rubber-like "hackey-sack" between themselves. Every barber shop or cafe had picture of their national teams or club teams on the walls... I had seen pictures of club sides in bars and cafes in Europe but I hadn't really associated football, or rather passion for football with that part of the world. That association was linked to Brazil and Italy for me... not a AFrica, north or points south. But I should have known better; when the news broke that Tunisia had qualified for 78 WC I was having dinner in a "Restaurant Universitaire" in Bordeaux... it was only then I realised how many Tunisians attended the University... the "restaurant" was three stories high, and the building literally shook with the hand-clapping and foot-stomping amid the cries of "Tunisie", "Tunisie" that rang out for about 15 minutes straight.

I had made a couple of Tunisian friends and of course I watched a couple of their matches... Tunisia didn't advance but they came out with a decent record; i didn't know then, but I found out later they were the first African team to win a WC match , beating Mexico 3-0.
__________________

[Karl]

World Cup Qualifiers - EGYPT!

Top of his group!
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/prelimi...855/index.html