Egypt suspends soccer league after deadly stampede kills 25 football fans in Cairo
Feb 09, – More than 20 Egyptian soccer fans were killed late Sunday outside a stadium in suburban Cairo during a melee with security forces, prompting the Egyptian Cabinet to suspend the country’s national soccer league.
The Cabinet announced the suspension of the national league late Sunday after riot police clashed with hundreds of soccer fans and fired tear gas to clear a narrow corridor leading to the Air Defense stadium in an eastern Cairo suburb, setting off a deadly stampede.
Egypt last suspended the league in 2012 after 74 fans were killed in rioting that broke out following a match in the Suez Canal city of Port Said. That violence sparked outrage at the police and the transitional military council that had assumed power following the 2011 overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.
Fans have only recently been allowed back in stadiums, but authorities continue to limit the number who can attend.
The two sides have presented conflicting accounts of what sparked the violence. Egyptian authorities said a group of hardcore supporters of the Zamalek team — known as the Ultras White Knights — “tried to force their way into the stadium to attend the soccer match without tickets,”. But the White Knights wrote on Facebook that authorities tried to force them down a lone entrance that was ringed with barbed wire, leading to pushing and shoving.
One witness told the AP that the fans began throwing rocks at police, who responded with tear gas. The same witness also said that fans tried to block the team’s bus from entering the stadium before police fired tear gas to disperse them.
Most of the dead were suffocated when a crowd stampeded after police used tear gas to stop fans trying to force their way into a league match between two Cairo clubs.”
The match between Zamalek and ENPPI was delayed an hour and ended in a 1-1 draw.
Press journalist for HRO media – Khizer Hayat reports.
Category: Arab uprising
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