Football News: Algerian striker Rafik Saifi fined over slapping a female reporter
A day without scandal in sports is probably akin to a day without the sun in the real world. The sun will show its face whether for an hour or for a whole 12 hours or more. Scandal too will surface in relation to athletes whether
it’s a trifle such as being drunk or a big one like match fixing. The catch is that no scandal goes unpublicized and neither is it ever overlooked by the governing bodies. Sports Associations and Boards make it a point to investigate almost every allegation
made against the players that come under their respective jurisdictions. Sometimes tribunals are held with full on investigations and sometimes it’s a simple matter of doling out the punishments.
Late June saw a scandal hit a not so famous footballer; Rafik Saifi. He was accused of slapping a female journalist, Asma Halimi. Saifi is an Algerian professional soccer player and began his career at MC Alger in Algiers, Algeria.
His playing position is forward and attacking midfielder. The thirty five year old footballer has been playing for the Algerian national team since 1998. He has scored a total of 19 goals for his national team. January 23, 2010 saw Saifi being loaned to FC
Istres by his league Al-Khor. The forward has made 13 appearances since then and scored 2 goals. He is said to have been ‘done with his international career’ after the 2010 World Cup.
Asma Halimi claimed that Saifi slapped her in the face after Algeria lost a decisive match that meant that they were out of the World Cup for good. The reporter told the BBC World Service "I was waiting for the Algerian players.
When Saifi came I just moved away. I felt a hit.” Witnesses to the incident claimed that Halimi slapped the footballer back as a reflex action. This slap was met with another assault from the midfielder who is alleged to have thrown a sports drink bottle at
the female reporter. Luckily the bottle missed Halimi but Saifi had to be restrained from attacking the journalist, according to witnesses.
The rowdy dispute was the climax to a year of bad blood between Saifi and Halimi. The back story is that in 2009 the Algerian player gave an interview to a local Arabic-language outlet in Qatar. It is claimed that in the interview
the footballer revealed he was marrying a French woman. Halimi translated and published this interview in the Algerian paper “Competition”. In his Islamic home country the interview reflected poorly on the national soccer team player.
Halimi reported the incident to FIFA as well as the Algerian Football Association, and as a result the striker has been fined almost $3,000.
Saifi is one of the most passionate players in the Algerian national team but such incidents tend to not only depress a player but it also gives them a bad reputation amongst their fans and colleagues. The pressures in the world
of sports are manifold and tend to affect a player’s form on and off. Sometimes scandals such as Saifi’s and other are the sort that make or break the player. Some recover from the fall in reputation, others figuratively die trying and many others quit entirely.
Yet being a good athlete means instant fame and fame means constant invasion of privacy. One could blame Saifi for not being careful about what he told the press. On the other hand one could also blame Halimi for reporting something she knew would defame the
footballer. After all, publicity is a risky business and such scenarios will arise incessantly.
Tags: