Empty Post on Al Ahram

Al-Ahly were playing in the final of African Champions League today against Sfax of Tunisia and I was dying to find out the score. Since Soccernet and the Guardian weren't covering it, I checked Al Ahram every five minutes until the football section became updated, under the title 'Al Ahly returns to Egypt after playing in a stormy African Cup Final'.

No menton of the score. Which can't be a good thing, right? I proceed to read the article which describes, in detail, Al Ahly's trip back after playing an "intense game" against a "stubborn opponent"...still no mention of the score...then it goes into detail about how the coach, Jose, has given his players four days rest to "get over their exertions"...still no mention of the score! The article ends with no commentary about the game and no mention of the score. Is possible that we lost and that, in some warped Egyptian twist of logic, it made sense to the editors to spare their readers the truth?

And then it hit me.

Al-Ahram updates it's articles at the same time every day. Clearly what happened was that the game hadn't ended by that point. So, rather than say nothing, they compose an empty article IMAGINING the team's moves after the game but since they don't know what the score is, they leave that part out.

This is fucked up on many different levels, I don't know where to begin. Firstly, why write an article based on conjecture and projection? What's the point? Do sports readers really want to know about the trip back, without knowing the score? But the story is also completely made up, since the events they describe haven't happened yet, so what gives? And why can't they have someone available after hours to update the story with real facts, once they happen? Does everyone working there have to leave on time? Is it in their union contract? If you're going to be part of the web, a 9-5 job in a dynamic world makes no sense.

Worse comes to worse, don't update the article at all, if you don't have anything to say. Don't make shit up! It's insulting that they write an article like this which says nothing-and nothing that actually happened would appear on the web page of a major publication. Do they think that no one who matters would check their online page? Because the president or the cabinet don't read, there's no need to do things properly.

My mind is officially blown though knowing Egypt, this is the perfect metaphor for everything that's done over there: form over substance, unwillingness to devote the correct resources to any project if it conflicts with schedules and virtually no oversight on anything. All they care about is the Ahram chairman bragging at the cabinet meetings, or to the president, that they have a website. Never mind that the contents of this website are rubbish. Once again, quantity takes precedence over quality.

I'm speechless. This is why I can never go back.

Incidentally, Ahly won in dramatic fashion, scoring a goal in the second minute of stoppage time, via "the Wizard" Abu Traika. I found the score on the BBC website.