footballuprising

Von James M. Dorsey

A stampede at a Cairo stadium earlier this month, much like a politically-loaded soccer brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said three years ago, is shining a spotlight on Egypt’s unreformed, unabashedly violent, and politically powerful police and security forces amid confusion over what precisely happened and how many fans died.

Amid security forces holding fans and fans holding police responsible and conflicting assertions of the number of people who died in the incident one thing stands out: the deep-seated distrust and animosity between significant segments of the Egyptian public and an unreformed security force that was long the hated symbol of the regime of toppled President Hosni Mubarak; played a key role in persuading the military in 2013 to overthrow Egypt’s first and only democratic elected president; and has since left a bloody of brutal violence as evidenced by the deaths of some 1,400 anti-government protesters in the last 19 months.

Continue reading “Soccer deaths renews spotlight on Egypt’s notorious security forces”

Von Patrick Kingsley

Von Al Jazeera

Sunday’s tragic events should be seen in the context of a widespread crackdown on dissent in Egypt, analysts say.

‘While they [the Ultras] can mobilise their supporters, they can’t really mobilise much more beyond that’ [AP]

Links zum Thema:
Schlaglicht auf die ägyptische Polizeigewalt → NZZ
Opinion: Egypt’s soccer violence has deeper roots → CNN

Von Jonas Beckenkamp

Ägyptens Fußball erlebt mit 19 Toten die nächste Tragödie. Nahost-Fußballexperte James M. Dorsey erklärt, wer die vermeintlichen Krawallmacher in den Stadien sind und welche Rolle die Regierung in Kairo spielt.

Vor fast genau drei Jahren, am 1. Februar 2012, hat es im ägyptischen Fußball schon einmal gekracht. Bei Zusammenstößen rund um ein Spiel in Port Said kamen 74 Menschen ums Leben, etwa 1000 wurden verletzt. In der Folge ruhte der Ligabetrieb. Jetzt wiederholt sich die Geschichte: Bei erneuten Krawallen vor der Partie der Klubs Zamalek und ENPPI starben am Sonntag 19 Menschen.

Der Publizist James M. Dorsey beschäftigt sich seit langem mit Fußball im Nahen Osten. Seine Plattform “The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer” gilt als verlässliche Quelle über die Szene im arabischen Raum. Der 63-Jährige ist außerdem als Senior Fellow an der S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapur tätig – und ist Co-Direktor des Instituts für Fankultur an der Uni Würzburg.

Continue reading “Interview mit James M. Dorsey: “Die Ultras haben für ihre Regimekritik bezahlt””

Links zum Thema:
Media trade blame over Egypt football stampede → BBC News
Egypt football: Fans tell of stadium crush horror → BBC News
»Die nächste Schlacht wird viel gewaltsamer«: Interview mit Philip Rizk und »Die Ordnung herrscht in Kairo«  → footballuprising

Von James Dorsey

The death of at least 40 militant, highly politicized, and street battle-hardened Egyptian soccer fans in clashes with security forces raises the stakes for general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s efforts to suppress political dissent.

The incident is one of the worst in Egyptian sporting history and the latest in a number of mass killings involving security forces since Mr. Al Sisi overthrew of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first and only democratically elected president, in a military coup in 2013.

It resembled in some ways a politically loaded soccer brawl in Port Said three years ago in which 74 militant fans or ultras died and is likely to re-energize the ultras, one of Egypt’s largest social movements mostly organized in rival groups supporting a specific soccer team. Ultras played a key role in the toppling in 2011 of President Hosni Mubarak, subsequent protests against his military successors as well as Mr. Morsi, a member of the since outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and anti-government demonstrations against the rise of Mr. Al Sisi.

Like in Port Said, many of the fans in Cairo died of suffocation in a stampede. The stampede occurred when police used tear gas to stop members of the Ultras White Knights (UWK) from forcing their way into Cairo’s Air Defence Stadium where their storied Cairo team Al Zamalek SC was playing a Premier League match against rival Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries (ENPPI).

Continue reading “Soccer Deaths Raise Stakes for Egypt’s General-Turned-President Al Sisi”

Von Patrick Kingsley

Zamelek supporters clash with police in Cairo in country’s third football disaster since 2011 revolution

Clouds of teargas billow into the night sky outside a Cairo football stadium on Sunday

Dozens of Egyptian football fans were killed on Sunday evening after police fired teargas and shotgun pellets on supporters queueing to enter a Cairo stadium, in the latest spasm of state-led violence that has characterised much of Egypt’s post-revolutionary history.

Continue reading “Dozens dead after police fire on Egyptian football supporters”