AKEED, Wasfi Khushman

The main event of Espérance Sportive de Tunis (EST) beating Jordan"s Al-Faisaly Sports Club in the final of the Arab Club Championship has been overshadowed by refereeing mistakes and the rioting after the match, which dominated local and foreign media coverage. Although sports press is used to handling different angles of sports events, press coverage is usually similar in that it focuses on the main news, which usually involves winning or losing. However, in the case of the match between EST and Al-Faisaly, which was held on Sunday evening, winning or losing was marginal news for the media, which is consistent with the nature of press news.

Local press coverage focused on what it said was "a refereeing mistake" that led to allowing the third goal of EST in the net of Al-Faisaly in the final of the championship, which Egypt hosted between 22 July and 6 August. The press coverage shifted from blaming the referee to efforts to release Al-Faisaly fans who were arrested by Egyptian security forces in the wake of the assault on persons and vandalism of public property. The media ignored the acts of rioting witnessed in the last minutes of the match and after it.

Although sports press does not strictly follow the standards of other press reports and shows leniency more than other domains of coverage, commitment to ethical principles and integrity, and avoiding generalizations and fueling discord, remains axiomatic and must not be violated.

Al Rai newspaper published an article on the history of Al-Faisaly"s participation in finals and explained what went on during the game, suggesting that the referee did Al-Faisaly injustice.  In spite of its neutral headline, Al Dustour accused the referee of ignoring a clear offside that led to scoring the third goal by the Tunisian team, thus crowning them champions.

As for Al Ghad, its headline spoke about the referee "stealing" the dream of Al-Faisaly. The body of the report was in the same vein. Al Sabeel newspaper ran a story about what went on during the game and published a video that shows the "attack" on the referee.

News websites opened the file of the Egyptian referee, Ibrahim Nour El Din, and leveled accusations against him.

Detainees

Newspapers were united in following news about the persons detained after the game. They published statements by Ayman Safadi, minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, and Ali Ayed, Jordanian ambassador to Egypt, prior to the release of the detainees at a later time. Websites raced to publish the names of Jordanian detainees in the riots. They also published statements about the fact that there were juveniles among them, and accusations that some of them were beaten by Egyptian security personnel.

Despite the positive spirit of the two tweets by His Majesty King Abdullah II and Her Majesty Queen Rania, anger at the referee and the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and insulting them dominated tweets by Jordanians and their posts on social media platforms. Some even bragged about beating the referee and vandalizing public property in Alexandria.

Egyptian Press

Egyptian media outlets devoted a lot of space to the "attack" by the administrative staff and players of Al-Faisaly Club on the referee and the ensuing incidents of rioting as part of reports on EST winning the championship. The press coverage reflected Egyptian anger, which was clear in headlines that contained words such as fierce battle, massacre, brutality, and disastrous final, in describing what happened after the game.

The coverage included statements by referee Ibrahim Nour El Din, in which he said that "what he cared about was his country, Egypt, and that it was still fine."

Some coverage had spoken about penalties against Al-Faisaly before a statement was issued later by UAFA, stating that Al-Faisaly would be deprived of participating in the Arab Championship for five years and that fines would be imposed on its players.

Although some Egyptian voices criticized some organizational aspects of the championship, especially the performance of referees, and called for not mixing sports with politics, other voices were the complete opposite. Also, some Egyptian press coverage monitored Jordanian media outlets" heavy criticism of refereeing performance in the Arab championship.

Tunisian Press

Tunisian media outlets celebrated the crowning of EST as Arab champions, ignoring the controversy over the "offside" and making a cursory reference to the objection by Al-Faisaly staff to referee decisions and the incidents of rioting that followed the game.

Comments on Arab sports shows were equally critical of refereeing and the reaction of Al-Faisaly staff, saying that "Al-Faisaly commanded respect throughout the games of the championship, but the reaction in the end made it lose a great deal."