Tragedy in Egypt

[Visca]

A massive pitch invasion in Port Said, Egypt, following a match between defending champions Al Ahly and fourth-place Al Masry has, according to state television, led to at least 73 deaths and more than 1,000 injured in one of the most horrific and large-scale instances of football stadium violence in recent memory. The violence appears to have far more to do with politics and the country's recent revolution than it does with the sporting event that preceded it, though.

Outnumbered riot police and members of the military appeared to do little as thousands of Al Masry fans poured out of the stands after their side won the match 3-1. They then chased Al Ahly's players and fans into a corner of the stadium before throwing rocks and bottles at them. Others were beaten with sticks and stabbed.

From Al Jazeera:

Al-Ahly football players were trapped in the changing room along with supporters. [...]

"This is not football. This is a war and people are dying in front of us. There is no movement and no security and no ambulances," al-Ahly [midfielder] Abo Treika told the team's television channel. "This is a horrible situation and today can never be forgotten." [...]

The two teams have a long history of bad blood, and clashes have erupted in recent years between their fans. [...]

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said al-Ahly fans were said to have been provoking al-Masry fans throughout the game with abusive language.

Video of the attack shows that the police presence around the field of play largely stood idle as the violence unfolded. Why fans of the winning side would decide to launch such a sickening attack still remains unclear, but there are growing theories that it was politically motivated and that the lack of police efforts to stop it may have been intentional. Football and politics are very closely linked in Egypt and the militant fans (known as "ultras") of Al Ahly "played an in important role in the protests that early [last] year toppled President Hosni Mubarak," according to Middle East soccer blogger James Dorsey.

As a result of this attack, the Egyptian league was suspended indefinitely, and a stadium in Cairo was reportedly set on fire when a match between Al Ismailia and Zamalek was postponed.

Source

So sad... RIP to those who have lost their lives today.

 

[Ed.]

sad indeed.

---------- Post added at 23:28 ---------- Previous post was at 23:25 ----------

 

[Mino]

that's sad

 

[Devious]

Darkest day for the Egyptian football. True disaster.

 

[Armes]

What the fuck is wrong with people?

 

[monster09]

The deaths occurred after supporters invaded the pitch following a match between top-tier clubs Masry and Ahly on Wednesday.

It is feared the death toll could rise as scores have been injured.

Some of the dead were security officers, the Associated Press quoted a morgue official as saying.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says it appears fans had taken knives into the stadium.

Our correspondent says the lack of the usual level of security in the stadium might have contributed to the clashes.

Police in Egypt have been keeping a much lower profile since last year's popular protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak from power.
Bitter rivalry

Television pictures have shown images of crowds descending into the stadium, chasing rical fans and players.

Some were cornered in the stadium, parts of which were set on fire.

Egyptian fans are notoriously violent, says our correspondent, particularly supporters of Ahly known as the Ultras.

They have been heavily implicated in the political confrontations recently, our correspondent adds.

Wednesday's violence broke out at the end of the match, which, unusually, the Port Said side Masry won 3-1.

As match ended, their fans flooded onto the pitch attacking Ahly players and fans.

What happened today in #portsaid was Planned by the police and army to take revenge from the ultras #egypt

According to tweeted from # #Portsaid security forces locked Al Ahly fans inside stadium and let in dozens of local fans with weapons #Egypt

It was not a clash between rival fans #Egypt #Ahly #PorstSaid

it was a well executed plan to kill dozens of young guys who made the life of #Egypt military rulers difficult #revenge #PorstSaid

According to many tweets many Al Ahly fans were thrown from higher levels of the stadium or strangled or stabbed #Ahly #Portsaid

Today we witnessed Egypt rulers assassinating more than 70 young football fans through trained killers #Egypt #PortSaid #football #violence

Shocking stuff and RIP to those souls.

And this is not football related riots by the looks of it.

 

[Besnik]

Yea already heard of that. Terrible, just terrible.

RIP to all those who died.

 

[Pharaoh]

Yeah its a shame.........truely saddened by the events

I just wish the stability in the country would return I love Egypt so much and it sucks to see what they're going through right now

 

[Mad Biscione]

Christ, just reading about it being a set up

 

[Ana Banana]

Read a bit about it yesterday...

RIP

 

[Pharaoh]

Yeah reading more about this and hearing about this from relatives in Egypt, apparently this was set up in some sort of way.............which is really really sad to hear =\


If someone can break this down a little more? Idk the exact details so I don't wanna talk outta my ass, but I'm really curious wtf was exactly going on. I read some bullshit from the media that I'm not buying at all.


Nvm thanks visca and monster

 

[Hamsun]

ACAB, all i'm going to say. RIP.

 

[Coasterfreek]

People are stupid.. RIP

 

[Devious]

Fucken foreign media.

This is not related to politics. these are animals who happens to support football. Egypt is a third world country who`s the Illiteracy rate hits the roof. 30 years under the rule of a currpot regim who only takes benifits from increasing this rate and evey single negative aspect of life in Egypt has created millions of monsters in people who kill eachother for the most stupid reasons.

There is no third part, there is no politics related. unfortunatley these so called bullshit reasons are attempts from the Egyptians to save their image to the west. but it`ll be too late to start lying at ourselves and pretend that we are all good and nothing is wrong with Egypt.

Our ehtics is so much fucked up, our children on the streets hurt eachother and call eachother the filthiest names for kidding, and they fight with knifes and guns now on daily bases.. the adults do worse shit that I dont want to talk about.

I dont want to fuck up my image as an Egytian or my fellow Egyptians as well.. there are a percentage of Egytians who are civilized and educated, and Im aware that this kind of shit happens around the world. and it happends in the most civilzed countries often as well. but the situation in Egypt looks hopless.. and the time to heal the 30 years aged wounds would take decades to overcome.

We need to fix ourselves instead of blaimng an imaginray third party every time a disaster strikes and hunderds or thousands die. cowards do that. it makes me so sad to admit it, but felt so proud when we started the revolition. however now.. I feel ashame to be an Egyptian.

 

[M.Adnan]

Port-Said..

Every time I hear Port-Said, I think of its honorable history during the Tripartite Aggression.

Then I look at the level of shame that they introduce to us today..

What a shame. Egyptians know what I mean.

 

[Adriano]

so unfortunate

 

[K.I.]

RIP

 

[jmaster]

RIP

That's just abnormal. Ignorant pieces of shit.

 

[Karim]

As part of Ultras Ahlawy and a man who almost went to Port Said that night if it werent for a last minute job interview that morning I am deeply in a grave state of mind still and personally lost 4 close friends on top of a number of brothers in the group.

Here is the account of one of our heads who was at the game:

there is 3 elements to what happened considering ultras ahlawy has been so vocal against the army in the last 2 months ( following the death of our member mohamed mustafa in november with a bullet in his back by the army)
our last tifo last week end was ahlawy revolutionary and we chanted heavily against army and had a tifo saying they were thugs
what happened last night was the price we had to pay

1- the police which allowed them to enter with weapons in the stadium and allowed them to invade the pitch three times during the match and after every goal without any interference which is imposible in egypt and not usual
2-the army that locked the door that leads to the large area behind the away end and the away toilets with a lock and nobody to protect it , t my friend from zamalek who indirectly said people died because they cramped with the door closed should know that police lock the door when there is cops inside the and outside the gate not usual to lock this particular door that leads to toiletts and the person who lock it disspears 2 ms before the end of the match with already dozens of people on the running track and a pitch invasion so obvious as there was nobody in this area and people were trying to get into this area for 20 ms without anybody in sight from the police
3- hatred between us and them that goes back since the 30's this always been a high risk match , it was the only away trip my dad tried to tell me to not go from going to some 15 yrs ago long before there was ultras or organised supporters group as violence has been a fixture between the two set of supporters since forever ( ahly and ismaily is considered to be more dangerous in the media but portsaid is a far tougher and intimidating city) i dont know if they were aware of this police and army conspiracy or not but fair play to them they came prepared to kill us ( a message they had in the 1st day saying " your death is here" ) we were handed to them on a silver plate and they took advantage of this perfectly , this is a big loss to us in a very unfair situation , there is no rules there thats their mentality and we paid a heavy price
you win some , you lose some
sadly this was a very heavy loss

riot police was standing infront of the away end like its usual in all games in the egyptian league, two lines : one behind the goal and one infront of the curva as there is a large running track

they invaded the pitch with huge numbers and attacked our players
we were worried about our players even some of the boys tried to jump to protect players

suddenly when they came down on the running track infront of us the riot police behind the goal went to the sides and let them pass and the 2nd line infront of our curva disspeared and they were throwing signal rockets straight on people and flares and stones so we had to go back a few rows

there is 3 yellow gates infront of the away end one near the players tunnel it was closed , the other two one in the middle one on the other side were somehow open and the all the stadium entered , as you can see there is 5 metres of garden before the away end after these gates and a fence we need to jump to reach these doors
so we didnt even have time to react and meet them on the door as we were taken by surprise to be honest as it all happened in 30 seconds and not something youd ever see in Egypt with tons of riots police on the fence

suddenly there were inside armed with everything you can imagine , this pictures show a white stick they all had with them inside the curva , how they entered with that amount of sticks inside the stadium in a high risk game is beyond me

some had air knives ( the one that kills if stabbed) guns these white sticks
a few people ran to the tunnel that leads to the large area behind the away end and to the horror of the people that went there it was locked with a big lock , doors in egypt are never locked with a big lock just cops that prevent you from going out

the people that stood and fought were either stabbed , shot , strangled or thrown from the curva to the large area beneath
the people that tried to escape were caught on the stairway leading to the tunnel and a lot of people died because of this as masry fans werent happy they were being crashed to death they throw flares on them to make sure it was a massacre

it is a tragedy , every 3 hours you hear a new name of another friend that died
ultras is a way of life and not death

sadly this was a very heavy loss
police and army wanted to punish us, they used their hatred against us
too many brainless animals without honor

one of the most important songs in our curva says
" the greatest club in the universe
if the whole world is against you
i will always be madly in love with you
the day you win a is a day of celebration for me
i will never be far from you
THE DAY I WILL STOP SINGING
IS THE DAY IM DEAD"

we always sing louder the last two sentences and i guess next time we sing it , we will sing it louder than ever and we will be thinking of all our friends that this sentence represents their life and represents their death


That's the story

 

[jmaster]

Terrible...

Look at the blood in the stands. My God...