While walking through the interview zone at Loftus Versfeld Stadium following the 1-0 loss to the United States, Algeria player Rafik Saifi walked up to a female journalist representing an Algerian newspaper and slapped her across the face.
Asma Halimi, who works for the newspaper Competition, struck the player back in his mouth. He then threw a sports drink at a wall as Halimi was escorted away. It appears the two have a little history.
“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.”
It is understood that Saifi and Halimi had previously had a difference of opinion over an article she wrote for her newspaper.
“She was standing there and the guy came here and he hit her,” said Francisco Aguilar Chang, a reporter from Guatemala who witnessed the incident. “Then she hit him back and her nail caught his lip.”
Neither Saifi nor Algerian soccer officials responded to requests for a reaction by Yahoo! Sports. Halimi said she would indeed file a complaint with FIFA and the Algerian Football Association.
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