Thu 22 Jun 06
The flag that freaked out a nation
After Ghana scored its second goal against the Czech Republic last week, defender John Paintsil waved an Israeli flag in tribute to the nation where he plays professionally. Needless to say, the reaction in Egypt’s government-controlled press was predictible:
Ghana defender John Paintsil’s waving of an Israeli flag to celebrate his team’s World Cup goals drew a barrage of insults and furious reactions in Egyptian newspapers.
Paintsil, who plays for Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv, celebrated the two goals in Ghana’s 2-0 win over the Czech Republic by pulling an Israeli flag out of his sock and waving it at the cameras.
“The ignorant and stupid Paintsil, who spent 20 days in Egypt during the last African Nations Cup, plays for Hapoel,” sports commentator Alaa Sadek wrote in the daily Al-Akhbar, explaining to baffled Egyptian audiences Painstil’s link to Israel.
“Egyptians supported the Ghanaian team all the way until the 82nd minute, and regretted it after the Israeli flag (waving),” screamed a bold red headline in the independent daily Al-Masry al-Yom Monday.
“As soon as the referee blew his whistle to start the match, Egyptians were out enthusiastically, almost hysterically supporting Ghana, until defender John Paintsil took out the Israeli flag,” read the paper’s front page article.
The live commentator on the Arab satellite channel broadcasting all World Cup matches in the region abruptly cut short his trademark “goooaaaaaaal” when Paintsil brought out the flag.
“What are you doing, man?” the bewildered commentator said.
The main question on Egyptian lips after the match was “why?”
Some papers described Paintsil as a “Mossad agent”, others said “an Israeli had paid him to do it” but the most elaborate theory was offered by the top-selling state-owned daily Al-Ahram.
“The real reason,” sports analyst Hassan el-Mestekawi wrote, stems from the fact that many Ghanaian players go through football training camps set up by an Israeli coach who “discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent’s children” with the ultimate goal of selling them off to European clubs.
“The training program for these children starts every morning with a salute to the Israeli flag,” Mestekawi claimed.
The Ghanaian Football Association issued a whimpering apology. With Ghana playing the Great Satan as I write this, a commenter at the British blog Harry’s Place writes, “considering Ghana’s football team is full of Mossad agents, whilst the United States as a whole is run by Zionist paymasters, or vice versa, whoever wins out of Ghana and the USA today, it will be a great victory for The Zionists. Hurrah!”
Damian P.
