Soccer win marks end to 'black years' for Algerians

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NATIONAL PRIDE

More significant though for Algerians is the symbolism of the football team's success. The Soir d'Algerie newspaper's front page headline on Thursday read: "We did it!"

"Algeria is not terrorism, illegal emigration and social misery," said the newspaper's editorial. "It is a country which can finally haul itself up among the ranks of the great nations of the world."

Algeria is obsessed with football. Its favourite son is Zinedine Zidane, former captain of the French national team whose parents are of Algerian descent.

But the frenzy surrounding the final qualifying tie with Egypt was unusual in its intensity.

Days before the game, groups of fans clambered on to the roofs of buses, train drivers decorated their locomotives with the national flag and thousands of people mobbed an airline office seeking free tickets to travel to the match.

That passion spilled over into violence when fans, angry at reports that travelling supporters had been mistreated at a previous match in Egypt, ransacked the headquarters of a subsidiary of Egypt's Orascom Telecom.

RETURN OF OPTIMISM

Nacer Jabi, a sociologist at Algiers University, said success on the football pitch allowed disillusioned young people to re-connect with their national identity in a way not seen since the country obtained independence from France in 1962.

"The Algerian people have become very pessimistic. They only see things in black, even the good things," he said. "This victory over Egypt is also a victory over that situation."

World Cup qualification is likely to give a breathing space to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is facing social unrest over unemployment, high food prices and cramped housing conditions.

Teachers' unions are in the second week of a strike over pay, and last month residents of an Algiers slum demanding they be re-housed threw petrol bombs and stones at riot police.

"For a brief time, in the moment of victory and euphoria, the people will forget their problems," said Jabi.

Some of the supporters watching live pictures from Wednesday's match in a cafe in Algiers chanted "Bouteflika! Bouteflika!" -- rare acclaim in a country where many people are deeply sceptical about their political leaders. (Editing by Giles Elgood)