More bloody football

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.)

Bloody football

More than 100 people have now died as a result of a football rivalry in Egypt, and many more deaths could soon follow.    The disaster began with a riot in Port Said last year at a match between al-Masry and Cairo’s al-Ahly, in which more than 70 fans died. 

Last weekend, a court in Port Said sentenced 21 people to death for their part in the disorder.  Following the verdicts, protestors clashed with police, and more than 30 more lives were lost.  

But there is also a political dimension to the trouble.   At the time of the original riot, the Muslim Brotherhood alleged that the violence was orchestrated by supporters of the ousted regime of President Mubarak.

Now the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi is president, and the football protests have become mixed up with demonstrations against what opponents see as his undemocratic approach, leading to dozens of deaths across the country.   (See also my blog of 2 Feb, 2012)

*Another review of Historia mundial de los desastres.  http://www.tiempo.com/ram/29343/historia-mundial-de-los-desastres/

 

Almost a reckoning

Just over three years since she sank at the cost of more than 1,000 lives, the Egyptian owner of the al-Salam Boccaccio 98 ferry has been sentenced to seven years in jail for involuntary manslaughter. Mamduh Ismail, a former member of the Egyptian parliament’s upper house, which is appointed by President Mubarak, had been acquitted in an earlier trial.

Hundreds of victims’ relatives applauded the verdict, though there is no certainty that Mr Ismail will serve his sentence as he left Egypt soon after the disaster, and is now believed to be in Europe, possibly London. Two other defendants, also absent, were sentenced to three years in gaol.

The roll-on-roll-off ferry, which was carrying mainly Egyptian migrant workers and pilgrims home from Saudi Arabia, went down in the Red Sea on the night of February 2, 2006. A fire broke out on the car deck, and the crew were never able to get it under control. Passengers who were alarmed about the thick smoke were told by crew members to go back to bed.

By the time the crew had decided everyone had to abandon ship, she was listing so badly that it was difficult to launch the lifeboats, and more than 1,000 people drowned, with just 388 surviving. At the initial trial in July 2008, Mr Ismail and four other defendants from the ferry company were acquitted, while the captain of another ferry was gaoled for six months for failing to help the al-Salam.