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Algerian player slaps female reporter following loss to U.S.

Jun 23, 2010, 7:00 PM EST

75 Comments

That was a thrilling end to the U.S.-Algeria match, wasn’t it? Thank goodness the losing team didn’t take it too hard. Here’s Algerian forward Rafik Saifi, 35, who was so mad after his team’s 1-0 loss that he could just slap someone … and so he did. After exiting the field earlier today, Saifi walked up to an Algerian newspaper reporter and slapped her in the face.

While walking through the interview zone, Saifi spotted writer Asma Halimi, who works for Algerian newspaper Competition, and struck her with his open hand in front of dozens of witnesses. Halimi responded by striking the player in the mouth.

Saifi then threw a sports drink bottle at a wall in the interview area, as Halimi was ushered away by security staff.

“I said nothing to him and he reached over and hit me,” Halimi said to Yahoo! Sports. “So I hit him back. I said nothing to him first.”

Saifi and Halimi have a history, it seems; she leaked news of his marriage to a French woman to Algerian newspapers last year. Since France and Algeria are not exactly on the best of terms, Saifi has been touchy about that ever since.
Protests will be lodged and complaints will be filed, believe me. But because Saifi is human and humans make mistakes, and it might interfere with the flow of The Beautiful Game, don’t expect Sepp Blatter to overturn this slap.
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Algerian Player Rafik Saifi Slaps Female Reporter After Loss [The Sporting Blog]
Algeria player slaps female reporter [Yahoo Sports]

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  1. J. - Jun 23, 2010 at 8:45 PM

    A loser in more ways than one.

  2. katiesmith - Jun 23, 2010 at 9:52 PM

    What do you expect from a Muslim? Then we wonder why Muslim countries are so messed up. These men are pigs and they think Allah gives them the right.

  3. setay - Jun 23, 2010 at 10:17 PM

    Yes, because Christianity has such a long history of being respectful to women. Apparently you haven’t read the Bible. I guess since we’re dealing with idiotic stereotypes, you’ve just confirmed that all women named Katie are morons. Oh, the logic of a bigot.

  4. Nick - Jun 23, 2010 at 10:33 PM

    Katie is 100% right, Setay. Islam was founded by a pedophile and even now, it’s Islam — not Christianity — that does so-called “honor” killings and doesn’t even let women drive. Even now, grown Muslim men in Iran pay off poor parents to rent a 9-year-old girl as a “temporary wife.” Thank God that Spain told those POS to GTFO in 1492 or we would be overrun with them even more.

  5. fiveiron - Jun 23, 2010 at 10:40 PM

    Religion aside, at least she’s a good counterpuncher.

  6. A.Zidane - Jun 23, 2010 at 10:41 PM

    It’s not because he’s a muslim that he did that. It would be more appropriate to say that it’s a problem of attitude. Do you think that I, as a muslim, agree with what he did? Hell to the NO! You shouldn’t generalize and mix everything up together.
    When Maradona insulted the press and everything, did people say it was because he’s Christian? Or that he’s from Argentina, where machismo is really present or that coming from a “Third World Country” explains it all? No they didn’t. They just said that he has attitudes problems.
    Coming back to Saifi, I think it was really low and pathetic of him to do that. Thank God that she’s filling a complaint, this behaviour is unacceptable, wherever you are from, or your beliefs are.

  7. Sigh - Jun 23, 2010 at 10:43 PM

    Ugh, now the moronic bigots come out of the woodwork.

  8. juppy - Jun 23, 2010 at 11:02 PM

    Maybe she said no to some favor and he got pissed. Christian women sleep with anyone for free.. so you don’t have to disrespect/ill treat them just “****” them. I bet you will find this offensive now lady don’t you.

  9. wintersmith - Jun 23, 2010 at 11:44 PM

    Ah yes. 1492. The year of the Alhambra Decree, in which the new Catholic monarchs of Spain gave all Jews 4 months to get the hell out of the Kingdom of Spain or be killed–and leave any “gold and silver and minted money”.
    With the passing of Andalusia into Christian hands and the retreat of the Moors, the era of tolerance ended on the Iberia. Many Jews, who had built one of the most stable and wealthy communities in Europe under Muslim rule, fled with the Moors to North Africa. The legacy of Moorish Spain is still with us, most undeniably in sciences, engineering and medicine. Want a quick example? Every time you don’t get blood poisoning because you dabbed alcohol on a cut, thank the Muslim physicians of Al-Andalus. They had an antisepsis protocol already in the 10th century.
    The aforementioned Catholic monarchs–Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile–set up a little thing called the Spanish Inquisition, which proceeded to arrest, torture and kill quite a lot of people for offenses ranging from being a Lutheran to saying that premarital sex was not a sin. In the first decade of its existence, the Inquisition burned 2,000 people at the stake.

  10. Fatima - Jun 23, 2010 at 11:50 PM

    How ignorant are you, make sure you do not send your kids to church, you never know what would happen – but what can we expect from ignorance.
    Peace

  11. Yassine - Jun 23, 2010 at 11:59 PM

    I bet you you don’t know that this woman is a muslim and she is a sport reporter. Since you probably also think that muslim women are living in caves. What happened here has nothing to do with Islam. They were 21 other players in the field and they all behaved in a calssy way. This guy is a loser and his coward act was a reaction to an article the reporter wrote about him before the world cup. Anyway, no one likes him. It was perhaps his last game in any case and he did a favor to the Algerian team by issuing his own pink slip to himself.

  12. Hamza79 - Jun 24, 2010 at 12:08 AM

    Totally expected. This is a team of BARBARIANS. FIFA should have banned them when their goalkeeper (that blonde-wannabe Shawshee) headbutted the referee in the game against Egypt (the #1 African team, by the way) in the African Cup of Nations.
    Remind me again, is there any other team that scored two red cards and that astronomical number of yellow cards in the qualifiers?
    Barbarians.
    When they play in Egypt, their players physically attack the linesmen when they are losing. Their crowds are always armed with knives.
    There is no room for Algeria in a civilized world cup. And to all those bashing Islam/Arab…etc: Do us a favor and go back to school.

  13. Allison - Jun 24, 2010 at 12:27 AM

    haha agree completely!!

  14. bigcanadiano - Jun 24, 2010 at 12:43 AM

    Never in my life I have read a more pitiful excuse applying ignorance against another group.

  15. Peaceman - Jun 24, 2010 at 1:01 AM

    Look at this egyptian now…! LOL… give urselves a break and stop hating man LOL

  16. katiesmithhi - Jun 24, 2010 at 1:19 AM

    ** Comment removed by divine intervention **

  17. Tewfik - Jun 24, 2010 at 1:21 AM

    I am a Muslim and of Algerian origin. I am ashamed of his behavior. We, Muslims and Algerians, have a long way to go. We have to get better for our own sake. The most dangerous and less talked about conflict that is going on right now is the war within Islam: Which forces will prevail? A renaissance or a fall into the abyss?

  18. Fafi :) - Jun 24, 2010 at 1:21 AM

    Even tho algeria is out,
    WE ARE STILL AMAZING!!!! :-D Allah blessed us with a great team

  19. george - Jun 24, 2010 at 1:23 AM

    ur about as dumb as a post lady

  20. sam sincere - Jun 24, 2010 at 1:32 AM

    the biggest idiot living on earth is hamza79 you are = to saifi what a shame.saifi slapped a women you slapped a nation.stop your hatred and ignorance.

  21. Peaceman - Jun 24, 2010 at 1:35 AM

    Mr. Tewfik, stop faking being Algerian/Muslim… WTF r’u talking about????? which force will prevail!??!?! fall into abyss!!! LOOOOOL

  22. Sumptiousbabe - Jun 24, 2010 at 2:20 AM

    What is all this noise abt religion here? For Christ sake, this guy is a human and not a religion so let’s put all this christianity and muslim aside and judge him as an individual with a very bad temper or should i say attitude. It is high time we started seeing ourselves as one and not christain or muslims at least we are all one in God!

  23. Louis Hobbs - Jun 24, 2010 at 2:31 AM

    What a ridiculous and ignorant statement. Billions of people lumped together as though each of them has the same thoughts and feelings as the rest. It’s like me saying that all Americans are stupid!

  24. Omnia - Jun 24, 2010 at 2:41 AM

    It’s pathetic how the actions of an untalented illmannered jack*** (aka Saifi )can be turned into an attack on religions, cultures and politics.
    Katie… Nick.. whatever issue you two have with Muslims,I would suggest you do a little reading first before talking about them, or else SHUT YOUR PIEHOLES.
    Seriously, women don’t drive??? Have you even met a Muslim woman you ignorant brats??? You probably think we live in tents, and ride camels, and girls aren’t allowed to go to school and men always marry more than one wife and better yet instead of schools, you must think we have a chain of kids camps titled “Become a terrorist”, right? Guess again you loser.
    And speaking of pedophiles, wasn’t it the Pope who sanctioned child rape and apparently refused to take action regarding a priest who raped 200 deaf boys? and you say Islam was founded by a pedophile? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/world/europe/25vatican.html
    Christianity and Islam are both two of the three Abrahamic religions, and like it or not they all share common origin and values, and neither approves of what Saifi did, regardless of whether he is a Muslim or not, so stop forcing religion and your pathetic idea of what Islam is like into the conversation, this is a sports article, stupid.

  25. Tee - Jun 24, 2010 at 2:43 AM

    You’re such a bigot! This could have happened with anyone (I believe OJ killed his wife and got away with it)…it has nothing to do with Muslim, Christian, Jew etc. Violence is violence…and I still can’t believe that in 2010 there are still people as ignorant and bigotted as Katie Smith. How humiliating it must be for you now that you’ve exposed you’re ignorance to everyone on the net. WOW!!!

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