Day after day, crises between Egypt and Qatar escalate and take a turn that seems completely unrelated to politics. Weeks after the scandal caused by Egypt returning a 2 billion Egyptian pound (about $286 million) deposit to Qatar, and Qatar reneging on an agreement with Cairo as part of an aid program to kick-start the Egyptian economy, Egypt responded by broadcasting the soccer game of Egypt and Ghana as part of the World Cup playoff on national television, without prior consent from the Qatari Al Jazeera channel. It is important to note here that the latter has exclusive rights to broadcast the games. This comes in light of Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood regime and Al Jazeera's position in support of deposed President Mohammed Morsi’s supporters, saying that the current ruling party has assumed power through a coup.
The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) has been threatened with financial sanctions after the Al Jazeera Sports network announced it would sue the Egyptian and Algerian national television channels. This was done after they broadcast the games of their national teams in World Cup playoffs, with both teams losing, respectively, to Ghana and Burkina Faso. Al Jazeera considered this move to be a violation of its exclusive rights to broadcast the African World Cup playoffs.
