The stampede at a Cairo football
match which cost 22 fans their lives is the second major football disaster in
Egypt in just 3 years. In February 2012, 74 fans were killed in a riot at a
match in Port Said.
Since then, the authorities have
limited the number of supporters allowed into matches. Only 5,000 tickets are
said to have been made available for Sunday’s game between Zamalek and ENPPI at a
ground which could hold 30,000.
The authorities claim that fans
without tickets tried to storm the ground, while supporters say police fired
tear gas and bird shot as they were being forced to go through a fenced-in
passageway about 12 feet (3.7m) wide, causing the fatal stampede.
The match went ahead, but football
has now once again been suspended in Egypt. President al-Sisi has promised an investigation
into the disaster, but relations between the security services and football supporters
are known to be strained because of the part played by fans in bringing down President
Mubarak. (See also my blogs of 2
February, 2012 and 29 January, 2013.)
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