Category: Ägypten

Von James M. Dorsey

As Egyptian general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi struggled this week to get Egyptians to cast their vote in parliamentary elections, militant soccer fans put widespread youth disillusionment with the president’s autocratic rule on public display.

More than 10,000 fans rushed in response to a call by Ultras Ahlawy, the militant support group of storied Cairo club Al Ahli SC, to the Mokhtar al-Touch Stadium on election Sunday to watch their storied team train. It was the club’s first training since it last week won the Egyptian Super Cup.

Ultras Ahlawy issued the brief call on its Facebook page that has more than 1.1 million followers. Ultras Ahlawy together with other militant fan groups has played a key role in anti-government protests in the last 4.5 years starting with the 2011 popular revolt that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

Fan neglect of the election reflected a widespread sentiment among Egyptian youth expressed by a hashtag #badalmatantakhib or #insteadofvoting that was trending on Twitter.

Continue reading “Egyptian soccer fans put youth disillusion with elections on public display”

Ultras Ahlawy announced that they would attend Al Ahly’s match against Tala’a El-Geish on Thursday, defying a crowd ban imposed by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA).

Despite the EFA’s decision to hold football games behind closed doors since the Air Defence disaster, the die-hard supporters said in a statement on their Facebook page on Wednesday that they would be present in the stands during Al Ahly’s Egyptian Premier League opener.

The group stressed on the importance of fan attendance to football, using the Egyptian Super Cup that was held in the UAE and drew a huge crowd as an example.

“Starting the new league without fans is a continuation to the killing of football in Egypt…and that’s why Ultras Ahlawy group in Cairo and all the governorates will gather on Thursday to attend Al Ahly’s first game in the league against Tala’a El-Geish,” the statement read.

Continue reading “Ultras Ahlawy to attend league opener despite crowd ban”

Von James M. Dorsey

A staunch supporter of general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, has called on the government to allow soccer fans, a pillar of anti-government protest, back into stadia that have largely been closed to the public for nearly five years.

Mr. Sawiri’s request on the eve of two African Confederation Cup semi-finals in Cairo in which Egypt’s storied clubs Al Ahli SC will square off with South Africa’s Orlando Pirates while Zamalek SC plays its return game against Tunisia’s Etoile du Sahel, followed several recent incidents in which fans either forced their way into an Egyptian stadium or used away matches of Egyptian clubs to stage anti-government protests.

Continue reading “Staunch Sisi supporter calls for opening of stadia and dialogue with ultras”

Von Hatem Maher

Zamalek will be hoping to continue their bid towards a historic treble when they face Tunisia’s Etoile Sahel in Sousse in the first leg of the African Confederation Cup semi final on Sunday, less than a week after they had ended a Cairo derby jinx in style.

The White Knights completed the domestic double last Monday when they defeated nemesis Ahly 2-0 in the Egypt Cup final to secure their first derby win since 2007 in a season to remember, having also pipped their foes to the Premier League title.

A hat-trick of major titles for Zamalek would be unprecedented and would make a perfect ending for a team that had struggled during the past decade until a major squad overhaul in the summer of 2014 made the difference.

Continue reading “Preview: Euphoric Zamalek seek to continue bid towards historic treble”

Von James M. Dorsey

The Egyptian interior ministry, in a potential signal that the country’s military-backed regime recognizes that its choking off of all public space could backfire, has agreed to allow fans to attend international matches played by the national team and Egyptian clubs.

In doing so, the ministry de facto acknowledged that it has put itself between a rock and hard place. Many Egyptians blame the national team’s poor performance on the fact that fans have largely not been allowed into stadia to support their squad or their clubs since the popular revolt that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Continue reading “Egypt throws the dice with partial lifting of stadia ban”

Von Ulrike Flader

An interview with James M. Dorsey, Senior Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture in Würzburg/Germany. He is also an award-winning journalist, working among others on the Middle East since the mid 1970s. His monograph Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer was published with Hurst Publishers in 2014 [1].

In this interview, Dorsey discusses the fundamental developments in the Middle East over the recent years arguing that despite the repressive reactions of the governments towards political dissent, a radical shift in status quo is underway. He describes the economic and social factors which continue to nourish discontent in various countries in the Middle East, and explains, focusing on the case of Eygpt, why football has played such a central role in the protests.

Continue reading “The Middle East in Transition: Repression, Discontent and the Role of Football”

Von Ziad A. Akl

Egypt’s Ultras, organized groups of football fans, shot to infamy with the 2011 uprising. Despite an active presence in the streets dating back several years, 2011 marked a new introduction of the Ultras to the Egyptian public. Suddenly, they occupied a bigger slice of public space, their performance becoming more vocal, and their presence more significant. Mistakenly, several scholars and commentators mark that year as the beginning of the Ultras’ politicization. Close examination of the different Ultras movements demonstrates that their vocal presence in the public sphere, however, does not necessarily entail a political orientation.

In 2007, football fans in Egypt began organizing under the official, and global, banner of the Ultras movements. It all began with fans of Egypt’s two major clubs: Ahly—Ultras Ahalawy—and Zamalek—Ultras White Knights. Prior to this, informal associations and communities served the purposes of passionate and active football cheeringand identifying with a specific entity.

Continue reading “Misunderstanding Egypt’s Ultras”