A Loss off the Pitch

During the football match on Sunday, February 8th between two Egyptian Premier League clubs, 25 fans literally died for their teams. Before the match began, supporters of Zamalek were amassing and trying to gain entry to the match against the local city rivals ENPPI. Order soon devolved into chaos, though, as the fans and match security clashed which caused the deaths of the 25, likely through stampeding or tear gas. The fans blamed the security, stating the passageway through which they could enter the stadium was much too narrow for the thousands attempting to file in. Security conversely claimed, along with the State media, that a number of people much greater than the available 5,000 tickets tried to gain access to the 30,000 –capacity Air Defense Stadium located in the East of Cairo. Therefore, they were driven to using force through teargas to uphold the lawful number of entrants and to ensure the security of the players, officials, and fans.

The reason for this significant difference in capacity and fans permissible is a similar incident that occurred in Port Said, Egypt in 2012. People like Muslim Brotherhood Activist Abdul Rahman Iz tweeted that the 2015 event was a repeat of the former “massacre…by the same police and military militias” during which 74 fans died in rioting. Nevertheless, relations between the security forces and devout football fans have recurrently been in strife as many of these very fans were proponents and activists of the revolution which organized the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarek in 2011. Politics soon entered into the situation with figures such as the leader of the Al-Ghad Party, Ayman Nur, accusing the guards without holding anyone specifically accountable for the 25 deaths. Tariq al-Zumur, leader of Islamic Group’s Building and Development Party, agreed with Nur by tweeting that the massacre of Zamalek fans is “new evidence for how the gang [referring to the authorities] allows the shedding the of Egyptian blood.”

The many accounts of the incident continued to increasingly demonstrate conflict between the fans and the security. One Zamalek fan, or Ultra White Knight (UWK), claimed on Facebook that the occurrence was “a planned massacre, premeditated murder, and a conspiracy plotted by mean people.” UWK Twitter users echoed this mood: “It is a deliberate crime prepared in advance.” Furthermore, many aficionados of the sport said they were told by the police themselves to “go back” at which point they sprayed tear gas indiscriminately, triggering the stampede. A steel door also fell down with people stuck underneath; other fans as well as the military personnel trampled on these fallen, victims adding to the injury and death count. Other fans’ claimed they were pelleted with bird shot and chased like fugitives. Contradicting the fans, the officers and security guards as well as the interior ministry stated that these very fans were trying to enter without tickets and so they as government workers had the legal responsibility to prevent the Egyptian citizens from spectating the game without authorization and damaging public property. They said, because the fans were so violent, congested, and forceful in trying to enter, they died of asphyxiation; the officers made no mention of telling them to turn around or tear gas/ bird shot. Egyptian state media, such as the newspaper Al-Ahram al Masai, continues to claim only the fans were responsible for the incident. Such media demonize the aficionados as the sole cause to the outbreak with demeaning comments such as “riots caused by crowds delay the match.” However, the policemen and army personnel defended themselves for using teargas and bird shot on the fans. Because no one had died, they claimed they should be granted automatic innocence from a trial that could follow the incident. In response to these comments by the security, surviving fans claimed most everyone had possession of a ticket but people should ultimately not lose their lives for a 20 Egyptian pound ($2.62) piece of paper. They also called out vehemently to PM Ibrahim Mahlab and President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to punish their security men, and their interior ministry for this wrongdoing, although Sisi had already publicly expressed his condolences for those who had died.

Funerals of the Zamalek victims followed Monday, February 9th in Cairo as social media sites honored the dead with remembering slogans such as “#zamalekmartyrs.” However, determining which party is guilty, which party speaks the truth, and whether there actually was a conspiracy is unlikely to be resolved, at least in the immediate future.