Category: Ägypten

Sisi urges dialogue with Ultras on anniversary of stadium massacre

Ultras Ahlawy

Von Al-Masry Al-Youm

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has proposed initiating a dialogue with hardcore football fans, known as the Ultras, on the fourth anniversary of the Port Said Stadium rampage that killed 72.

“I delegate 10 of you to brief the (Ultras) on the results (of investigations) … It is no secret, they (the Ultras) have the right to know everything under the presidency’s auspices,” the president told presenter Amr Adib in a phone call on Al-Youm channel late Monday.

“I was close to the Port Said Ultras massacre issue, and nothing was achieved,” continued the president, who was military intelligence chief at the time of the incident. “There was no clear truth that we can assuredly settle on. Somebody is hiding something that we do not know of.”

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Zamalek fans jailed for attempted murder of Mortada Mansour, storming club grounds

Von Ahram Online

In August 2014, unidentified gunmen opened fire at Mortada Mansour as he was leaving Zamalek club premises

Eighteen Zamalek football club fans were sentenced to five years in jail on Saturday for attempting to kill club chairman Mortada Mansour in August 2014.

Three other defendants were acquitted by Giza Criminal Court, including a leading member of the hardcore Ultras White Knights fan group, Sayed Moshageb.

In August 2014, unidentified gunmen opened fire at Mansour as he was leaving the club premises.

The 63-year-old escaped unharmed, but two workers at the club were injured.

In June 2015, Mansour withdrew his police complaint against 21 people he accused of being involved in the attack on his life. However, the withdrawal of the complaint is not binding on the court.

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Zwischen Rebellion und Affirmation, oder: Ultras sind politisch und auch wieder nicht

derpassVon Stefan Erhardt (Der Tödliche Pass Heft 79)

Ein Gespräch mit Ralf Heck, dem Betreiber des Blogs „footballuprising“

Seit knapp zwei Jahren gibt es den Blog „footballuprising“ – darin finden sich äußerst lesenswerte Analysen und Reflexionen vor allem zur politischen Wirkweise von Fußballfans, speziell von Ultra-Gruppierungen, die nicht nur in Europa, sondern auch darüber hinaus agieren.

Allerdings geht es nicht um Glorifizierung oder Rechtfertigung, sondern um differenzierte Meinungen und Berichte, etwas, das im Zusammenhang mit Ultras nicht immer zu finden ist, im Gegenteil: Allzu schnell hat sich in den Mainstream-Medien das Bild von den sich selbst feiernden, eine gewisse rebellische Attitüde zelebrierenden, vor allem aber auf Fun oder Krawall aus seienden Die-Hard-Fans geformt und verfestigt. Mit der entsprechenden Abneigung gegenüber dem Auftreten dieser Gruppen – das bisweilen durchaus eine gewisse Arroganz zu zeitigen scheint. Vielleicht aber nur der Versuch ist, eine bestimmte Sicht auf den Fußballsport zu befördern?

Ausgangspunkt für „footballuprising“: die Beteiligung von Fußballfans an den weltweit stattfindenden politischen Protesten und Aufständen. Bilder aus Istanbul oder Kairo sind politisch interessierten LeserInnen sicherlich noch vor Augen – Bilder von Fangruppen, die Proteste gegen Regierungen und Polizeigewalt unterstützten, die tatsächlich in solchen Momenten mehr einer Bürgerbewegung glichen denn einer Blase von Fußballfans.

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Egypt’s Ahly apologises to police and army for ‘fans offence’

Egyptian club Ahly held a press conference to apologise to the police, armed forces, and their former leader Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy, for offensive statements made by fans.

“We [Ahly] apologise to the men of the armed forces and we appreciate their role,” the club’s football sector director Abdel-Aziz ‘Zizo’ Abdel-Shafy said during a press conference.

“Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy has endured a lot and we ask him to add forgiveness to his great deeds,” Zizo added.

Ahly fans had raised signs considered offensive to the army and police in the wake of the Port Said stadium disaster, which left 72 Ahly fans dead following a league game with Masry.

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Ahly game delayed as crowd of fans prevents bus from moving to stadium

Fans

Von Omar Zaazou

The Egyptian League game between Ahly and Smouha has been delayed for two hours after its initial time of 19:45 Cairo time due to the late arrival of the Ahly players after a group of fans gathered to prevent the team’s bus from reaching Petrosport Stadium.

Some players managed to reach the stadium, while skipper Hossam Ghaly, keeper Sherif Ekramy and manager Jose Peseiro were stranded at the hotel for over an hour.

The players – who left through the hotel backdoor – had to go to the stadium with their private cars while others were forced to rent cabs, causing the Ahly contingent to fail to reach the stadium on time.

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Fearful of protests, Egypt keeps stadia closed

Von James M. Dorsey

Egyptian law enforcement authorities and the Egyptian Football Association (EFA), in a reflection of fears that stadia in Egypt could once more emerge as platforms for anti-government protest, have extended a ban on spectators attending matches that has been in place for much of the last five years.

The decision dashed expectations that the ban would be lifted in February with a new competition season. It comes against the backdrop of repeated Egyptian poor performance in international tournaments that many blame on the absence of fan support at matches.

Sports minister Khaled Abdel-Aziz used last month’s jihadist attacks in Paris as well as the cancellation of an international soccer match in Germany because of an alleged threat by the Islamic State to justify continued closure of Egyptian stadia.

“There’s no need to be hurried on fans’ return as the world is on the edge of a cliff,” Mr. Abdel-Aziz said.

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Family reports “forced disappearance” of youth

Von Amira El-Fekki

Sherif El-Afifi was arrested from his house in Nahia last Thursday, says sister

Sherif El-Afifi has been missing for six days, according to complaints from his family. His sister, Ghada, told Daily News Egypt that security forces stormed their house in Nahia, Giza, Thursday afternoon and took the young man into custody.

“Since then we do not know his whereabouts,” Ghada said, adding that “only the women of the family can go on this quest currently, because the father has been ill since that day.”

El-Afifi, a 26-year-old university graduate, was a member of the Ultras Ahlawy (UA07) fan group. His sister insists he has no political affiliation.

“Around 2pm, the police broke into our house. They were over a dozen, masked and armed, and they destroyed the apartment,” Ghada said.

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In rare sign of unity, Ultras of Ahly, Zamalek call for immediate lifting of crowd ban

Ultras White Knights

Von Hatem Maher

Hardcore fan groups of Cairo giants Ahly and Zamalek put aside their animosity to call for the immediate lifting of crowd ban in Egyptian football after attending a youth handball game with minimal security presence on Thursday.

Ultras Ahlawy and Ultras White Knights, who are normally at odds, released a joint statement to reiterate that security problems were never theirs, posting pictures of both sections of white and red-clad fans cheering their respective sides in an U-17 handball affair.

“Today, at Ahly’s Abdullah bin Faisal court, the fans decided to teach an effective lesson [to authorities]. Everyone witnessed the presence of the largest sets of fans with few metres separating them and not a single problem occurred although there wasn’t any security,” both groups said on their Facebook pages.

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Soccer Is Politics

Von James M. Dorsey

Why Egypt’s repressive regime considers soccer fans one of its biggest threats.

Ahmed (not his real name) is an Egyptian soccer fan—and a fugitive. He has been expelled from university, convicted twice in absentia, and sentenced to two long terms in prison. He moves around Cairo in a protective crouch, speaks in a low voice to avoid being overheard, and looks furtively over his shoulder as he organizes flash protests against the government of General-turned-President Abdel Fattah al Sisi.Ahmed is a leader of a militant soccer fan group called Ultras Nahdawy (“ultra” is a term for a hardcore soccer fan first used in Italy). Like other such groups, it is constantly in danger of being banned by the Sisi government under new, sweeping anti-terror legislation that targets dissent as much as political violence. Ahmed sees Nahdawy, founded by soccer fans as a Muslim Brotherhood support group in 2012, together with the main anti-Sisi student organization, Students Against the Coup, as a healthy outlet for disaffected youth at risk of radicalization. “We don’t like violence but we are not weak”, Ahmad insists, sipping coffee in a hip café in a middle-class Cairo neighborhood. “Hope keeps us going. We believe that there still are options.

We created options on Tahrir Square. This regime is more brutal [than the Mubarak regime] but there still are options.”Yusuf Salheen echoes Ahmed’s words. A 22-year-old leader of Students Against the Coup, created in 2013 after security forces killed more than 600 people at a Brotherhood sit-in, he studies Islam at Cairo’s prestigious Al Azhar University. Salheen was luckier than Ahmed and more than 1,500 other students who have been detained by security forces, not to mention 2,000 others merely ejected from their institutions of higher learning: He defended himself successfully in a university hearing called to debar him. “We are absolutely concerned that if we fail things will turn violent. Going violent would give the regime the perfect excuse. We would lose all public empathy. We hope that Egyptians realize that there are still voices out there that are not giving up and are keeping protests peaceful despite all that has happened”, he said.

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Trial of ‘Air Defence Stadium’ survivors resumes

Von Amira El-Fekki

The Cairo Criminal Court resumed on Wednesday the ‘Air Defence Stadium’ trial in a session held at Tora Police Institute.

The case involves 16 defendants who stand accused of rioting in the events, which saw the deaths of 22 football fans of Al-Zamalek SC last February. Several officers testified against the defendants at court.

“We all know the real perpetrators, but unfortunately our hands are tied,” Samer Attia, the uncle of one of the defendants, told Daily News Egypt outside the court on Wednesday.

Mostafa Mahmoud, a 23-year-old student at the Faculty of Commerce at Cairo University, was taken from his house at dawn, the day after the incidents.

“He went to the match with a friend, joining another group of fans on the way, after rumours spread that tickets would be available at the door. His friend had a ticket but Mahmoud could not get in,” Attia stated.

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