Inter Milan Offers Support in Tijani Belaid Court Case

January 12th, 2008 | by: Rami |

Although he’s currently on loan at Slavia Prague, Tijani Belaid’s contract is still held by Inter Milan and Massimo Moratti has not forgotten. Infosfoot.org reports that the Internazionale president recently contacted Tijani’s family to offer Club lawyers to help settle the ongoing court case stemming from the accident on New Years day. Same goes for his first Club, Paris FC who also offered to aid in any way possible.

Even Roger Lemerre, public enemy number 1 in our country, has been doing all that he can. Apparently, he asked to visit with the accused and the request was denied for whatever reason. It’s a nice showing of solidarity but unfortunately it doesn’t change the fact that the verdict was delayed until the 25th of January which means our player is still in prison waiting for that date to come. In Tunisia (and in other countries I presume), when someone is involved in an accident which leaves people dead, he or she automatically goes to jail. The logic is that even if it wasn’t his fault, it is to protect him from the family of the victims who might not care about the facts and are simply looking for revenge. Only once he is officially cleared of any wrongdoing can he be set free.

As you know, the official version of events is hard to come by and the state of the player on that fateful night has been questioned but what we do know is that Tijani didn’t crash into a car. The car in question was involved in a previous crash that left two girls stranded in the middle of the road, on the opposite side of the highway, and sadly Tijani couldn’t prevent his car from crashing into them. Tijani’s mother recently went on Mosaique FM to vent her frustration against people who automatically began writing and saying that the player was driving drunk. Since the delay of the verdict, she is now in hospital as her worries for her son have taken a physical toll on her.

This whole situation leaves so many questions unanswered but hearing his mother was really excruciating as the distress in her voice is evident. I understand that the investigation has to be complete and all sides have to be satisfied with the verdict, but I feel for our player who went from playing a big role in Ghana 2008 to a Tunisian jail cell. My hope remains that he is cleared in time and that he gets over this terrible moment in his life.

Update

Le Temps confirms that the alcohol tests came back negative and as Rachid mentioned in the comments, the only thing held against him is an excess in speed (120 KM instead of the 110 limit).

In Other News

Seif Ghezel’s deal to Neuchatel fell through but he’s still on his way to Switzerland as Young Boys has stepped up and signed him.

Nour Hadhria, former captain of the U17 team, has signed a two and half year deal with Club Africain. The midfield maestro was recently rated one of the top 50 young footballers by World Soccer Magazine and is reportedly a Bayer Leverkusen target. I look forward to seeing what he can do in Tunisian Ligue 1.

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Skander

Yeah i hope so. He is still Inters player on loan to Slavia prag. I don’t know what to say but i’m sorry for him like all of us and i which him the best and that he gets over the physical situation..
Rachid

Whatever the real version of events is, I wish him and his family well and to get over this incident as soon as possible. There is no doubt it can happen to anyone, especially on Tunisian roads. People have the tendency to drive extremely fast, often with poorly maintained cars. People also do not follow the most basic rules of driving. I was amazed during my last visit to see people driving on our only highway at speeds exceeding 150 km/h! If you happen to be in their lane driving at the recommended speed limit of 110, then you have to change lanes quickly or risk being hit. Fortunately for Tijani, I read in the paper he was driving at 120 km/h which is still above the speed limit, but not by much. It’s a dramatic change in one’s life to be excited about getting ready to play the CAN in Ghana, only for that to change within seconds to a horrible set of events! Let’s wish him the best and may God give him the strength to overcome this setback!
thamer

Iran’s national soccer coach, Mansour Ebrahimzadeh, has announced that the friendly match between Iran and Tunisia has been called off.

“The match was due to be held on January 16 but it was canceled because of the ongoing intensive training on the Iranian side and the commencement of the Iranian premier league,” Ebrahimzadeh said on Friday.

“The match was called off since the players have to play for their own teams in the premier league,” he added.
Rachid

Did the Iranians not know when their premier league games start when they first committed to the game against Tunisia on Jan. 16? Something is seriously wrong with our federation if this sort of late minute cancellation keeps happening. We don’t really know what to believe! Who keeps making these half-assed arrangements? Lemerre and his minions have had 2 years to prepare for the CAN, yet they’re failing at getting even some friendly games done for preparing the national team! Who is in charge? Where is the accountability? Where is the outrage? Does nybody give a damn?
http://slavia.cz Ondrej

PRAGUE – Slavia Prague are ready to help Tijani Belaid who had a tragic accident on 1 January in Tunisia, which involved three fatal injuries.

„We are ready to offer any possible assistance and support, we will try to send Tijani also all the supporting messages from Slavia fans,“ said Slavia spokesman Ondrej Zlamal.

Tijani Belaid was injured in the accident which was not his fault according to all the information known to our club.
Hatem K

Hi everyone, I really like this site and I found it entertaining. I really like most of the posted comments and videos. I love soccer and I am very interested about getting news about the Tunisian soccer and especially The Tunisian National Team’s news. I frequently check Tunisian newspapers and watch TV7. Yet, the thing is TV7 doesn’t broadcast all games via satellite. So, it is difficult for us overseas to watch all Tunisia games live. If anyone knows a way we can watch CAN 2008, it would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance. It is really fun to share info with everyone.
Hatem
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

Sorry for the late reply guys. Wasn’t around a computer for a bit… Infosfoot.org confirms the cancellation of the Iran game but no other Tunisian newspaper even mentions it. Not surprising given the fact that some of these newspapers are late sometimes. If this news is in fact 100% true then this is beyond a fiasco. I am holding out hope that when I watch dimanche sport tonight online that this news will turn out to be false. Otherwise I really don’t know what to say. These preparations have been littered with missteps and it looks like the federation needs a massive shakeup or some serious fine tuning. It’s incredibly frustrating to have such incompetence at the highest levels of the game in our country. It really makes you wonder…

Meanwhile in regard to Tijani, there’s a new article on Infofoot for fracophones if you want to read it.

http://www.infosfoot.org/fr/articles/belaid.php

Basically talks about how the players are all thinking of Tijani and how Roger Lemerre is appearing the most sensitive and human he has ever been as he is constantly in contact with Tijani’s dad Mimoune who is very concerned about the fact that his son is still in jail but assures us that Tijani is doing ok and is even training with other prisoners. He’s got a TV which is both good and bad since it allowed him to see an unnamed show (I’m guessing it’s Hannibal Tv’s “Belmakshouf”) that posed questions about the accident and went as far as to accuse him of being drunk. I can’t confirm this as I didn’t see it but whatever show it was, it had a real effect on both the father and the son. Hopefully this all gets settled soon.
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

Ondrej, thanks for the post… Looks like all of Tijani’s clubs are trying to help out in any way.

Hatem, thanks for the interest in the blog. We’ll be learning more about ways to watch the games live. If you’re talking about on TV it might be difficult but online there will definitely be some ways to do it with pretty good quality streams. More to follow on this…
Bman

Unrelated Rumor: Hatem Trabilsi possibly going to Reading in the Premier league.

Also Mali apparently had a match cancled with IRAN as well.
http://morocco.worldcupblog.org Mahmoud

THANKS RAMI FOR THE WELCOME…WISH YOU GOOD LUCK TO YOU AND YOUR TEAM AND ALL THE ARAB TEAMS IN CAN 2008.
Amine

It is sad that a talented player as Tijani Belaid is facing such a tragedy. My heart goes out to the victims families, including Tijani’s. Not sure whether he ought to be jailed this long if it is only what we refer to in Tunisia as a ikaff t7affudhi (usually should be 14 days or less). I hope that the authorities would shed all the light around this tragedy so that all parties get justice.
http://www.worldcupblog.org/african-cup-of-nations/african-cup-of-nations-preview-tunisia.html African Cup of Nations Preview: Tunisia – World Cup Blog – African Cup of Nations 2008

[...] Jemmali, Hamed Namouchi), lack of playing time at club level (Haykel Guemamdia, Adel Chedli), misfortune (Tijani Belaid), and Roger Lemerre’s questionable coaching decisions (Zied Jaziri, Karim [...]