Werder-Ultra wieder in U-Haft. Vermummter Protest im Bremer Steintorviertel

Ultras demonstrieren gegen U-Haft - buten un binnen | regionalmagazin [Quelle: Radio Bremen]

Bei einer kurzen Protestaktion im Bremer Steintor-Viertel haben am Mittwochabend etwa 50 vermummte Anhänger des SV Werder Bremen einen Streifenwagen der Polizei mit Steinen und Knallkörpern beworfen. Verletzt wurde niemand, wie die Polizei mitteilte. Die Aktion sei nach fünf Minuten beendet gewesen. Anlass für den Marsch war der Fall des wegen gefährlicher Körperverletzung angeklagten Fans “Valentin”. Das Landgericht hatte im November einen Haftbefehl gegen den 21-Jährigen aufgehoben.

Das Oberlandesgericht setzte den Haftbefehl gestern jedoch wieder in Vollzug. Nun sitzt der Mann wieder in Untersuchungshaft. Mit Rufen wie “Free Valentin” forderten seine Unterstützer dessen Freilassung. Als die Polizei die überwiegend aus Männern bestehende Gruppe aus der Ultra-Szene stoppen wollte, flüchteten alle unerkannt. Der zu den Ultras zählende 21-Jährige stelle eine Gefahr für die Allgemeinheit dar, teilte ein Gerichtssprecher mit.

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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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Mit grünem Känguru auf der Brust: Die kiffenden Ultras von Bohemians Prag

Von Mark Pickering

In Fußballstadien herrscht für gewöhnlich ein buntes Gerüche-Potpourri: Von Rauch über Bratwurst und Bier bis Pisse ist alles dabei. Im Stadion des tschechischen Fußballklubs Bohemians Prag 1905 gibt es darüber hinaus noch eine weitere olfaktorische Konstante, die alles andere zu übertünchen vermag: Weed.

Der Verein—von dem hierzulande höchstens Insider schon mal etwas gehört haben—spielt in der ersten tschechischen Liga (der „Synot Liga”),wo er sich mit den deutlich bekannteren Lokalrivalen Slavia und Sparta Prag messen muss. Obwohl der Klub für ziemlich einschläfernden Fußball steht (so wie übrigens der gesamte tschechische Fußball), sind seine Anhänger erste Sahne. Bohemians-Fans—überwiegend biertrinkende, jointrauchende Freidenker—mögen zwar auch Fußball, vor allem haben sie aber Bock auf Party.

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Zur Innenministerkonferenz in Koblenz

freiheiheitstirbt

Von Inferno Koblenz

Derzeit findet in Koblenz eine Konferenz der Innenminister statt. Medienberichten zufolge soll dort der Vorschlag eingebracht werden, Möglichkeiten zu schaffen, die Kartenkontingente für Gästefans (noch weiter) zu verringen. Wir erinnern uns: Diese Möglichkeit wurde im Rahmen des DFL-”Sicherheitskonzeptes” bereits am 12.12.2012 beschlossen. Seinerzeit beteuerte man, diese Regelung würde als ultima ratio nur bei gewissen Risikospielen genutzt werden. Viele Fans befürchteten bereits damals, dies könne Einfallstor für weitere Einschränkungen der Freiheit von Fußballfans in Deutschland werden.

Scheinbar halten gewisse Entscheidungsträger die aktuelle gesamtgesellschaftliche Sicherheitsdiskussion für den perfekten Zeitpunkt, die Möglicheit der Gästekartenreduzierung weiter zu zementieren und ihr langsam, aber sicher von der Ausnahme zur Regel zu verhelfen.

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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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Why some Turkish sports fans terrorize their opponents?

Von Pinar Tremblay

Disruptive and disrespectful actions by Turkish sports fans has been in the news in recent months. On Nov. 21, the Israeli women’s national basketball team became the victim of such behavior in Ankara at the European Championships. During the singing of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, Turkish fans threw water bottles, coins and other objects at the Israeli players on the court. The incident, reported widely in Israel, barely made the news in Turkey.

Some fans at the basketball game applauded the violent acts of others in attendance. On Turkish social media, several tweets praised the disruptive fans while criticizing the arrest of eight people who had waved Palestinian flags. Even before the basketball game, some social media users had called on the government to cancel the match because of Israel’s ongoing conflict with the Palestinians.

What transpired at the basketball game cannot be viewed as a random incident. A sequence of high- and low-profile disruptions has taken place at sports arenas since the summer. Soli Ozel, professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, told Al-Monitor, “This has almost become routine. Teams from several nations have been mistreated. Israeli teams have been terrorized multiple times. Police forces and bureaucrats do not react as strongly as they would against anti-government slogans. We have only heard [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan criticize the protests that took place during the Greek national anthem.”

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Breeding intolerance: Turkish soccer fans disrespect Islamic State victims

https://youtu.be/PNIYwGVOMo8

Von James M. Dorsey

Turkish fans twice in two months disrupted moments of silence for victims of Islamic State attacks in Ankara and Paris in a demonstration of the kind of intolerance bred by religiously-cloaked authoritarianism in countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The fans demonstrative empathy with the Islamic State by shouting Allahu Akbar, God is Great, during moments of silence at the beginning of two soccer matches represented more than simple identification with the jihadist group or evidence of a substantial support base in Turkey. It signalled a shift in attitudes among some segments of Turkish society as a result of 12 years of rule by one of modern Turkey’s most important leaders that increasingly has been infused with notions of ‘us’ and ‘them.’

In Turkey, them is often Kurds, who account for up to 20 percent of the population. Kurds were prominent among the victims in Ankara in October and an earlier IS attack in July in south-eastern Turkish town of Suruc. The Suruc attack sparked renewed hostilities between the Turkish military and the insurgent Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The fan’s provocative disrespect for innocent victims of political violence resembled tweets by conservative followers of Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia’s austere interpretation of Islam described by dissident Saudi scholar Madawi Al-Rasheed as “militarized religious nationalism.”

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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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