Egyptian Soccer Riot: Death Toll At 73

Originally posted by Tharsis
In Turkey, I believe it was, they eliminated virtually all soccer fan violence.

How?

They banned men from attending...

Aye, that is true mate; Turkey Swaps Football Hooligans For Women And Children

The Turks are vicious when it comes to football violence. They don't mind busting out their kebab knives for stabbing opposing fans. They even take large rocks in to the stadium to rain down on rival fans

I don't think people get it yet. This goes far beyond just a game.

Riots happen at sports games because it brings together a lot of people who share the same mindset. There wouldn't be riots if the social system was in order.

And people still believe that the Vancouver stanley cup riot was about hockey

In this cae in Egypt it was probably politcal it happened when Italy played Serbia, political surporters began setting fire to flags to try and be politcal, I this case it is no coincidence that the disorder of the country allowed this outcome to come about.

When Malta played Turkey in Malta on the day that my ancestors (The Maltese!) slaughtered and drove the Turks out of Malta the Maltese Ultras (Wikipedia; Ultras) went to the stadium dressed as Maltese knights

This demonstrates how strong political/cultural undertones are in football...even in a placid little country like Malta.

from speaking to people in suez....it seems TPTB....are known to "hate" the al ahly supporters....they are anti-mubarak and played a big role during the revolution....

now a pocket of them were leaving cairo to an away game in port-said to play al-masry (which translates as 'the-egyptians')....undercover mubarak loyalists mixed in with the home team fans, attacked the minor number of traveliing al ahly fans......

the reason why i believe this to be true..two things.....the police standing back and leting 'even' al ahly players to be attacked......the other was the 'big' men in leather jackets wlaking about witj impunity beating people...

people were killed by the crush....ie their intimadation of the fans backfired.....when they got back to cairo the core of their fans took matters into their own hands.

i love tantawi....but he needs to address the way the police are having running street battles with these fans...its ongoing...and it IS the police setting up and beating which are in fact young men...

shouldnt of happened...egypt knows better, has the facilities there for this not to happen.....it was a set up which turned sour

peace