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Egypt’s worst soccer tragedy
| DATE: 02 February 2012 |
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| BY: Mzolisi Witbooi |
The death of 74 football fans in Egypt is an indication that football hooliganism isn’t just a European phenomenon.
While Africa has had its fair share of football hooliganism in recent years, Europe – especially England – has been at the centre of it all since the 1970s. In fact, the British media went as far as calling football hooliganism “the British disease”.
While the football fraternity throughout the world is still reeling in shock following the death of 74 fans in Egypt on Wednesday 1 February, the northern African country is still licking its wounds in the wake of the Arab Spring that saw close to 1 000 people losing their lives in 2011.
Described by Fifa President Sepp Blatter as a “black day for football”, Egyptian reports suggest that the trouble started at the end of the match in which host Al-Masry of Port Said beat one of the country’s most popular sides, Al-Ahli, 3-1. Local fans allegedly stormed the field, chasing Ahli players while police tried to form a corridor to protect them. The country’s local state television reported that Masri supporters surrounded the players and fans of the rival team on the field and started hurling stones and bottles at them. Later that evening 74 people had been killed while more than 1 000 had suffered injuries.
One of the worst tragedies associated with football riots in Europe was in 1985, when Liverpool fans breached a fence separating them from Juventus supporters at the Heysel Stadium (Brussels) during the European Cup Final. The Juventus fans retreated to the concrete retaining wall that eventually collapsed – leaving 39 of their supports dead and more than 600 injured.
SA is also not immune to such tragedies. A friendly match between local rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates turned ugly at the Oppenheimer Stadium in Orkney, North West, in 1991. It was reported that Pirates fans threw cans and fruit at Chiefs fans while others charged at them with knives. The attacks resulted in a stampede that saw 42 people losing their lives in the chaos.
