Egyptian soccer TV rights aim to alleviate financial crisis

Soccer protests in Bizerte

By James M. Dorsey

The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) hopes to raise at least $17 million in an auction this week of the premier league’s television broadcast rights for clubs financially strapped by two years of political strife that has seen soccer suspended for much of that period and fans banned from attending matches.

Egypt’s Satellite Broadcasting Commission headed by the chairman of crowned Cairo club Al Zamalek SC,  Mamduh Abbas, has set EGP 120 million ($17.3 million) as the starting price of the auction that does not include radio broadcast rights and gives the winner the ability to parcel out segments of the league to different broadcasters.

The targeted price for television broadcast rights constitutes a multiple of the $2.6 million paid by Qatar’s state-run Al Jazeera network in late 2011. It was not immediately clear whether Al Jazeera would bid again for the rights that fit into its building of a significant sports franchise that includes the rights for 23 countries to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as well as to France’s top league and the launch of a sports channel in the United States.

In a world in which top European clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have become global brands, Egypt boasts some of the Middle East and North Africa’s most popular teams, including Zamalek and its arch rival Al Ahli SC that is believed to have a fan base of 50 million.

Al Jazeera’s drawback in the short term is that Egyptian matches have until now also been broadcast on free-to-air channels in a country where cable television penetration remains low.

In a bid to give the winner of the auction confidence that he will not run afoul of the Egyptian Television and Radio Broadcasting Union, which controls all broadcast satellite uplinks, broadcast matches will display the union’s emblem.

A successful auction would give a badly needed financial boost to clubs that are financially troubled and have often been unable to pay players as a result of Egypt’s political volatility since mass protests first erupted in early 2011 that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

Al Ahli along with five other premier league clubs -- Haras El-Hodoud, Ittihad El-Shorta, Bani Swaif Telephones, Arab Contractors and El-Dakhleya – withdrew this month from the Egypt Cup because they could not raise sufficient sponsorship.

Soccer has been at the core of more than two years of protests with militant soccer fans playing a key role and the death of more than 70 Al Ahli fans in a politically loaded brawl in February of last year in the Suez Canal city of Port Said.

The volatility remains as Egypt’s struggles to find a political balance and fans barred from both domestic and international matches after a year-long suspension of professional soccer in the wake of Port Said, the worst incident in Egyptian sports history, was lifted earlier this year.

The ban was earlier this month expanded from domestic to international matches as a result of several incidents including a display by Al Ahli fans during a match against Kenya’s Tusker FC in which they blamed Egypt’s former top military commander, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who was the country’s de facto ruler at the time of the Port Said brawl, for the incident.

Angry Zamalek fans blocked the entry to the sports ministry earlier this week with a banner that read:  "The stand is closed on the orders of the ministry and the ministry is closed on the orders of the stand."

Egyptian national team coach Bob Bradley cautioned that "a football match without spectators has no soul. Any footballer who has played in an empty stadium will confirm what an eerie, silent experience it is."

With soccer fan activism not limited to Egypt, Al Ahli meets this weekend in an African Champions League match Tunisia’s CA Bizerte, a club whose fans this week fought pitches battles with security forces this week after their team was disqualified from the domestic league as a result of alleged match-fixing. The fans attacked banks and shops and hurled rocks at police who fired tear gas in response.

Fan fury was sparked by a Tunisian Football Association decision to allow Club Africain rather than Bizerte to compete for the domestic title against Esperance Sportieve du Tunis, despite both teams coming second in their group with the same number of points. Club Africain and Esperance are Tunisia’s richest and two most popular teams.

The Tunisian club announced on Tuesday that it was withdrawing from the CAF Champions League in protest at Monday's decision in favor of Tunisia's two richest and most popular teams.

Bizerte initially said it would withdraw from the African tournament but then reversed its decision.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Egypt league to restart amid protests and finger pointing of police

Mass soccer protests

By James M. Dorsey

Egypt’s premier soccer league is scheduled to resume this weekend for the first time in a year amid concern about security against the backdrop of violent anti-government protests and the leaking of a court report that holds the police as well as fans responsible for last year’s death of 74 people in a politically loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said.

With matches initially scheduled to be played behind closed doors in military stadiums, security concerns are fuelled by the deaths of at least 60 people in anti-government protests in the last week, militant fan opposition to resumption of the league and the exclusion of spectators from the matches,  and criticism of the Egyptian Football Association’s (EFA) failure to upgrade stadium security.

The leaking of a 200-page summary of the prosecution’s case obtained by McClatchy Newspapers in the trial against 73 defendants, including nine mid-level security officials, who are accused of responsibility for the death of 74 soccer fans in Port Said is certain to fuel demands by militant soccer fans that the league only be resumed once justice has been served.

The initial sentencing to death a week ago of 21 supporters of Port Said’s Al Masri Sports Club sparked violent protests in the city that left 32 people dead and some 300 wounded. The court, which did not publish the reasoning for its verdict, said it would announce its verdict in the case of the remaining 52 defendants, including the security officials, on March 9.

President Mohammed Morsi declared a 30-day emergency rule in Port Said and two other Suez Canal and Red Sea cities – Suez and Ismailia – and ordered the military to intervene to restore order.

The postponement of the sentencing of the security officials coupled with the leaked report reinforce perceptions that the government of Mr. Morsi like its military predecessor is reluctant to hold the country’s despised police and security force responsible for the deaths of more than 800 protesters since mass protests erupted two years ago, forcing President Hosni Mubarak to resign after 30 years in office.

Despite their arch rivalry, supporters of Al Masri and crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC, many of whom died in the Port Said brawl, the worst incident in Egyptian sports history, agree that the brawl at the end of a match between the two was planned rather than spontaneous.

The incident is widely seen as an attempt to punish militant, highly politicized, well organized and street battle-hardened soccer fans for their key role in the toppling of Mr. Mubarak and their opposition to the military government that succeeded him and paved the way for the election of Mr. Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The leaked prosecutor’s report, according to McClatchy, asserts that the police as well as Al Masri fans were responsible for the deaths of the Al Ahli fans. In doing so it is likely to increase a sense in Port Said that it is being made a scapegoat despite the fact that Al Masri militants or ultras had also joined the protests that ended the Mubarak era.

It will also strengthen calls for reform of the police and security forces who were the repressive arm of the Mubarak regime and are since Mr. Mubarak’s fall a law unto themselves, according to a human rights report published last month.

The report said that police had failed to check fans entering the Port Said stadium for weapons on the day of the fatal match. It said that several Al Masri fans told investigators they’d noticed that one of the gates had been welded shut when they entered the stadium. They also thought it strange that no one was searching people for weapons.

Lax security fits the pattern of the time of police and security forces largely abstaining from enforcing security to avoid street confrontations in a bid to polish their bruised image and demonstrate that Egypt would sink into anarchy and chaos without them.

Similarly, police and security had failed to prepare for potential unrest last Saturday, the day of the sentencing of the Al Masri fans, despite predictions that the verdict was certain to spark violence in either Port Said or Cairo depending on which of the two cities’ militant soccer fans would be angry at the verdict.

More ominously in the case of Port Said, the prosecutor’s report said that the stadium’s gates had been sealed during the brawl, trapping fans, who either died pressed against the welded-closed entrances or who were hurled to their deaths from their upper deck seats. It said further that the stadium’s lights were turned off when the fighting began allegedly at the behest of an Al Masri leader.  

The report contrasted lax security at the match with the fact that the animosity between Al Masri and Al Ahli had prompted police under Mr. Mubarak to escort fans from Cairo on their way in and out of Port Said and to search spectators before they entered the stadium to watch a match between the two.

The report – based on interviews with fans of both teams, reporters at the game, stadium lighting experts and police, as well as autopsy reports and videos – suggests that the Port Said brawl was planned at a meeting two days before the match of a support group called Super Green that was sanctioned by the club. The meeting was attended by some of the 21 fans sentenced to death, the report said. Militants or ultras frequently meet in advance of a match to plan their support for a team during a match.

It noted further that militants of both Al Masri and Al Ahli had issued threats on social media in advance of the fatal match. “Port Said is waiting for you with knives and pistols,” one of the messages read, according to the report. “If you are coming to Port Said, write your mother a will because you will die for sure,” read another.

The report said that the Super Green meeting was designed to plan an attack on Al Ahli fans. It said the meeting was headed Mohammed Adel Mohammed, a 21-year old ultra known by his nickname,  Hummus. Hummus is among those now on death row and has become the symbol of the Port Said protests with calls for his release are painted on the exterior of Port Said’s stadium.

“Defendants premeditated the killing of some of the Ahly club fans (ultras) to retaliate for previous disputes between them and to show off their strength. For this purpose, they used weapons (knives and sticks) and explosive materials, such as flames, and rocks and other items to assault people,” the report said.

It said Al Masiy ultras began ambushing the Al Ahli team at its hotel even before the match with rocks and insults. The taunting continued at the stadium with several Al Masri fans changing their clothes and weapons throughout the day to make it harder to identify them in security video. Throughout, Port Said police “didn’t interfere in any way, which was seen on the videos,” the report said.

As the matched ended with an unexpected 3:1 Al Masri victory, Al Masri ultras, made their way toward the seating section reserved for al Ahli fans, it said. They threw Molotov cocktails and began attacking the al Ahli partisans with bricks and chairs.

“Al Mando was seen taking a blade from his mouth on video,” the report said, referring to an ultra by his nickname. Hummus admitted to investigators that he had thrown rocks at Al Ahly fans, the prosecution said. Others told the prosecution that they saw him also carrying Molotov cocktails, knives and sticks.

Hummus’ father, Adel Mohammed, asserted that his son had left the game before the stampede began and that his motives were innocent. He said Hummus’ confession had been coerced, according to McClatchy.

A police officer, known as Defendant 70, had the keys to all the gates but couldn’t be found when the stampede began, the report said, asserting that he offered different explanations for his disappearance. At one point, he said he didn’t unlock the gate at the request of Defendant 64, another officer. He told someone else the crowds were too big for him to confront. For his part, Defendant 64 said he never gave such orders and couldn’t find his fellow officer when the attack began, the report said.

“The prosecution found the keys with (Defendant 70) during the investigation. He said that he is the one who locked the doors, and he kept the keys with him until he handed them in to the prosecution. The prosecution made sure of that by trying the keys on the locks on Gates 2 and 3 and they opened the locks,” the report said.

This weekend’s resumption of soccer for the first time since the Port Said incident a year ago could hardly occur under less propitious circumstances. In addition to the prosecutor’s report putting the police even more in the firing line, analysts question whether security is sufficient to prevent a similar incident from happening again even though military stadiums are believed to be the most secure in Egypt.

The interior ministry, which controls the police and security forces, opposed the resumption of the league for much of the past year as long as a series of measures and upgrades in the stadiums had not been completed. Most of those recommendations have yet to be implemented by the EFA. “The haphazard attempts to resume the league, with or without fans, will lead to serious problems and maybe more victims,” sports critic Alaa Sadek told Al Ahram Online.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.

Egypt declares 74 dead soccer fans martyrs of the revolution

Ultras demonstrate on Tahrir Square (Credit: Associated Press)

By James M. Dorsey

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi has included 72 soccer fans killed last year in a politically loaded soccer brawl among those recognized as martyrs of the revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak amd mounting concern of a renewed soccer violence.

In recognizing the dead, Mr. Morsi fulfilled one of the demands supported by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) and storied Cairo club Al Ahli SC of militant, highly politicized, violence-prone and street-battled hardened fans who are calling for justice for their slain brethren.

Like a submission earlier this week by Egyptian Prosecutor General Tal’at Abdallah of new evidence in a trial against 73 people accused of responsibility for the brawl a year ago in the Suez Canal city of Port Said, Mr. Morsi’s move is designed to head off protests once the court announces its verdict on January 26. Al Ahli fans fear the new evidence will allow the court to postpone its verdict.

Mr. Morsi’s move entitles the families of the victims who died when violence erupted in February last year at the end of a match between Al Ahli and Al Masri SC. Most of the dead were Al Ahli supporters. It was the worst incident in Egyptian sporting history.

Hundreds of Al Masri supporters gathered this week in front of the Port Said prison to ensure that the detained defendants in the trial, which include officials of the club, would not be transported to Cairo for the verdict. They said they feared for the defendants’ lives. Authorities responded by promising to keep the inmates in Port Said.

That decision was however denounced by Al Ahli supporters who charged that it proved the interior ministry’s complicity in last year’s brawl that is widely seen as an attempt that got out of hand to discipline the militants fans or ultras, who played a key role in the toppling of Mr. Mubarak, opposition to the subsequent military rulers who led Egypt to elections that were won by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mr. Morsi, and resistance to his recent rushing through of a controversial constitution.

The Al Ahli militants or ultras said in a statement that “everyone will see that the numbers that participated (last Friday) in the (fans’) Tahrir Square march is a very small part of the mobilization.”

They said they were organizing transportation for Al Ahli supporters from across Egypt so that they could gather on Saturday, a day after the second anniversary of the protests that toppled Mr. Mubarak, in front of the Police Academy in Cairo where the court is scheduled to announce its verdict.

The Al Ahli supporters have also in recent days organized multiple open air multi-media presentations to remind Egyptians of last year’s incident.

The protests underline Mr. Morsi’s unsuccessful attempts to woo the ultras, one of Egypt’s largest civic groups after his ruling Brotherhood, since he was campaigning for the presidency last summer.

The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) on whose ticket Mr. Morsi was elected declared last year its "full support" for the ultras and their "just cause.” The FJP expressed its support noting that "none of those who killed their colleagues (in Port Said) have been punished."

In separate remarks at the same time on Twitter, Khairat El-Shater, widely viewed as the power behind Mr. Morsi’s throne, also came out in favor of the ultras. "Preserving the stature of the state will be achieved when the real perpetrators of the Port Said massacre are brought to justice,” said Mr. El-Shater, who withdrew his candidacy for president in favor of Mr. Morsi after a court barred him from running. The Brotherhood leader further demanded that the editor of the FJP’s newspaper apologize for recently describing the ultras as troublemakers.

Recognizing the Port Said dead as martyrs was only one of the soccer fans’ demands. Ultras Ahlawy, the Cairo club’s militant fan group, has vowed to prevent the resumption of professional soccer as long as justice has not been served in the Port Said case.

The ultras have further demanded that professional soccer remain suspended pending justice for the Port Said dead. Soccer in Egypt has been suspended since the incident in the Suez Canal city. They also want the police and security forces, their nemesis and the most despised institutions in Egypt because of their role in enforcing the repression of the Mubarak government, to be exempted from responsibility for security in stadiums; the police and security forces to be thoroughly reformed; Mubarak era officials to be removed from soccer boards and an end to corruption in the sport.

The fans are moreover unhappy with the conditions on which the Egyptian Football Association earlier this month agreed with the ministers of interior and sport to resume professional soccer in February. In particular, the fans reject the exclusion of the public from initial matches at the behest of the interior ministry which is in charge of the police and security forces. The ministry insisted that fans be excluded because it fears that clashes with the militants would further tarnish the image of the police and the security forces.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Egyptian prosecutor submits new evidence in bid to preempt violent soccer protests

Ultras prepare for Port Said verdict (Source Mohamed Hossam Eddin/Egypt Independent)

By James M. Dorsey

Egypt’s public prosecutor has submitted new evidence in the case against 73 people accused of responsibility for the death a year ago of 72 soccer fans in a politically loaded brawl in a bid to delay a verdict scheduled for January 26 that is certain to spark violent protests.

Hassan Yassin, the prosecutor’s spokesman, did not disclose what new evidence had emerged and it was not immediately clear whether the court would accept it. Equally unclear is whether militant, highly-politicized, violence-prone and street battle-hardened soccer fans or ultras would be pacified by the prosecutor’s move.

The verdict in the case that involves among others nine mid-level security is scheduled to be announced a day after the second anniversary of the eruption of mass protests that forced president Hosni Mubarak to resign after 30 years in office.

The verdict is certain to provoke protests by soccer fans irrespective of what the court rules. Renewed eruption of street violence could thwart efforts by the government and the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) to lift the year-old suspension of Egyptian soccer in the first week of February.

The suspension was imposed in February of last year after the 72 supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahli SC died in a brawl at the end of a match against Al Masri SC in the Suez Canal city of Port Said. The incident, the worst in Egyptian sporting history, was widely seen as an effort that got out of hand to cut the ultras down to size.

Egypt’s various ultras groups, one of the country’s largest civic groups after the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, played a key role in the toppling of Mubarak, opposition to the subsequent military rulers who led Egypt to elections that were won by the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, and resistance to Mr. Morsi’s recent rushing through of a controversial constitution.

Ultras Ahlawy, the Cairo club’s militant fan group, has vowed to prevent the resumption of professional soccer as long as justice has not been served in the Port Said case. The ultras have in recent months occupied the head office of the EFA on several occasions, stormed the Al Ahli training ground, forced the freezing of assets and imposition of a travel ban on Al Ahli chairman Hassan Hamdi by the Illegal Gains Authority on charges of corruption and attacked the premises of media organizations they deemed hostile.

During a mass demonstration last Friday on Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Al Ahli ultras shouted “Retribution against the leaders of the interior ministry and the military who masterminded the (Port Said) plot is easy. Death is coming for both.”

Al Ahli ultras demonstrated this week in Alexandria and Suez demanding revenge for the Port Said victims. "We are giving the authorities a final warning. We know what to do if the trial is manipulated," Egypt Independent quoted protest leader Mohamed Ali as saying.

Supporters of Al Ahli arch rival, Al Zamalek SC, protested separately in Alexandria against the arrest of one of their members, 14-year old Omar Hisham. Mr. Hisham was detained this weekend during demonstration in front of the Alexandria court house against the decision of judges to resign a day before pronouncing verdict against police officers charged with killing protesters during the anti-Mubarak protests two years ago.

Similar protests were also organized Monday evening in front of the Suez Governorate headquarters, after dozens of Ultras marched the streets of the city. They demanded revenge for the Port Said martyrs. Security forces intensified their presence around the building.

The risk of violence is enhanced by the fact that even if the Cairo court rules in favor of Al Ahli, the verdict is unlikely to meet conditions the fans have set for a resumption of Egyptian soccer. The ultras have demanded in addition to serving justice that the police and security forces, their nemesis and the most despised institutions in Egypt because of their role in enforcing the repression of the Mubarak government, be exempted from responsibility for security in stadiums; the police and security forces be thoroughly reformed; Mubarak era officials be removed from soccer boards and an end to corruption in the sport.

The fans are also unhappy with the conditions on which the EFA earlier this month agreed with the ministers of interior and sport to resume professional soccer in February. In particular, the fans reject the exclusion of the public from initial matches at the behest of the interior ministry which is in charge of the police and security forces. The ministry insisted that fans be excluded because it fears that clashes with the militants would further tarnish the image of the police and the security forces.

Port Said has twice this month had a foretaste of expected violence in the wake of a court ruling. Thousands of Al-Masri fans besieged the Port Said stadium this week in protest of authorities' plans to transfer the defendants to Cairo for the verdict. In response, authorities backed down and announced that the suspects would not be present in the court when it announces its verdict. Clashes erupted earlier this month in Port Said between supporters of Al Masri and Al Ahli in which 55 people were wounded. 

The head of Port Said’s Lawyers Syndicate, Safwat Abdel Halim, said the union had requested security for 46 lawyers representing the defendants in the Port Said case because they had been threatened by Al Ahli militants.

“We have written our wills and will fight for the rights of our comrades," said a member of Al Masri supporters, Ultras Green Eagles.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Port Said clashes: A foretaste of Egyptian soccer violence to come

Soccer clashes at Port Said student hostel (Credit: Aswat Masriya)

By James M. Dorsey

Clashes this week between rival soccer fans in Port Said in which 55 people were injured gave Egypt a foretaste of expected violence later this month when a Cairo court announces its verdict in the trial of 73 people accused of responsibility for last year’s death of 74 fans in a politically loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city.

The expected verdict on January 26 puts the government of President Mohammed Morsi in a no-win situation as it struggles to re-launch Egypt’s professional soccer on February 1, a year after the 74 fans of crowned Cairo club Al Ahli SC died in violence in the Port Said stadium after a match against the city’s Al Masri SC.

The brawl was widely seen as an attempt that got out of hand to cut down to size militant, highly politicized, street battle-hardened fan groups, who played a key role in last year’s overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak, subsequent often violent rejection of military rule and current opposition to the Morsi government. Egypt’s militant fans or ultras constitute one of the country’s largest civic groups after Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

This week’s violence in which rival groups threw rocks and Molotov cocktails erupted when Al Masri supporters clashed with pro-Al Ahli students at a Port Said University hostel who hoisted the Cairo club’s flag from their windows and balconies as well as the hostel’s roof, according to Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA). Four police officers were among the injured.

Al Masri fans and nine mid-level security officers are among those on trial in Cairo. Fans are certain to protest whatever the court decides. If the 73 accused or a substantial number of them are sentenced, Al Masri fans are certain to take to the streets. If however all or a substantial number of them are acquitted, Al Ahli fans will protest vehemently.

Ultras Ahlawy, the Cairo club’s militant fan group, has vowed to prevent the resumption of professional soccer as long as justice has not been served in the case of the 74 deaths, most of whom were supporters of their group. The ultras have in recent months occupied the head office of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) on several occasions, stormed the Al Ahli training ground, forced the freezing of assets and imposition of a travel ban on Al Ahli chairman Hassan Hamdi by the Illegal Gains Authority on charges of corruption and attacked the premises of media organizations they deemed hostile.

The risk of violence is enhanced by the fact that even if the Cairo court rules in favor of Al Ahli, the verdict is unlikely to meet conditions the fans have set for a resumption of Egyptian soccer. The ultras have demanded in addition to serving justice in the Port Said case that the police and security forces, their nemesis and the most despised institutions in Egypt because of their role in enforcing the repression of the Mubarak government, be exempted from responsibility for security in stadiums; the police and security forces be thoroughly reformed; Mubarak era officials be removed from soccer boards and an end to corruption in the sport.

The fans are also unhappy with the conditions on which the EFA last week agreed with the ministers of interior and sport to resume professional soccer on February 1. In particular, the fans reject the exclusion of the public from initial matches at the behest of the interior ministry which is in charge of the police and security forces. The ministry insisted that fans be excluded because it fears that clashes with the militants would further tarnish the image of the police and the security forces.

Much of the post-Mubarak violence stems from clashes between the militants and security forces. Their battle is a battle for karama or dignity. Their dignity is vested in their ability to stand up to the dakhliya or interior ministry, the knowledge that they no longer can be abused by security forces without recourse and the fact that they no longer have to pay off each and every policemen to stay out of trouble.

That dignity is unlikely to be fully restored until the police and security forces have been reformed – a task Mr. Morsi’s government has so far largely shied away from. The foot-dragging in holding security officers accountable in the case of Port Said and the deaths of hundreds of protesters in the last two years has reinforced the perception of the police and security forces as an institution that in the words of scholars Eduardo P. Archetti and Romero Amilcar is “exclusively destined to harm, wound, injure, or, in some cases, kill other persons.”

Reforming the police however is no mean task and is likely to prove far more difficult than Mr. Morsi’s taming of the military last summer by sidelining the country’s two most senior military commanders with the help of the next echelon of officers. Reform will have to mean changing from top to bottom the culture of a force that is larger than the military and counts 450,000 policemen and 350,000 members of the General Security and Central Security Forces.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Re-launching the Egyptian premier league: a barometer for Morsi’s performance

Militant fans protest

By James M. Dorsey

The re-launch of the Egyptian premier league has become a barometer for how President Mohammed Morsi is coping with key issues, including reform of the hated police and security forces and their role in the new Egypt, holding those responsible for the death of hundreds of protesters in the last two years accountable and rooting out corruption.

So far, the barometer shows a mixed record at best. Several attempts to restart the league suspended last February after 74 soccer fans were killed in a politically loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said have failed because of opposition by both the interior ministry which controls the security forces and militant, highly politicized, street battle-hardened fans known for their fearlessness who played a key role in the toppling of president Hosni Mubarak and subsequent anti-government demonstrations.

In its latest statement, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) said this week that the league would start on February 1, exactly a year after it was suspended and the first anniversary of the Port Said incident. Earlier attempts to re-launch the league on September 17, October 17 and December 17 failed. The EFA said the February 1 date had been agreed upon in a meeting with the ministers of interior and sport. It said that the two ministries felt that restarting the tournament in February would be "positive for the economy, the sport" and would signify stability.

Militant fans may however reject the terms of the resumption, which in turn potentially could lead to clashes with security forces when the first matches are played. The EFA said the first round of the league would be played behind closed doors. Sources said the interior minister who controls the police and security forces had insisted on the exclusion of the fans. "The EFA and the clubs' managements should reach out to fans in order to avoid unrest inside and outside the stadiums," the soccer association said.

The interior ministry insisted that fans be excluded because it fears that clashes with the militants would further tarnish the image of the police and the security forces, the most despised institutions in Egypt because of their role as the enforcers of the repression of the Mubarak regime.

For their part, militant supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahli SC, who were largely the victims of the Port Said incident, have vowed to prevent the resumption of the league as long as justice has not been served for their dead brethren, security forces and police retain responsibility for security in stadiums and the law enforcement agencies have not been reformed.

None of those demands are addressed in the agreement between the EFA and the interior and sport ministers. The EFA and the ministers hope however that a verdict scheduled for January 26 in the slow-moving trial against 73 people, including nine mid-level security officials, charged with responsibility for the Port Said incident, will placate the fans.

Even if the fans were to accept the verdict as having served justice, they are unlikely to take kindly to their exclusion from the matches. The verdict moreover would not address the deep-seated hostility between the police and security forces and the fans, one of Egypt’s largest civic groups that evolved in years of bitter clashes in the stadiums in the last four years of the Mubarak regime and was reinforced by the interior ministry’s heavy hand in the popular neighborhoods of Egyptian towns and cities.

Much of the post-Mubarak violence stems from clashes between the militants and security forces. Their battle is a battle for karama or dignity. Their dignity is vested in their ability to stand up to the dakhliya or interior ministry, the knowledge that they no longer can be abused by security forces without recourse and the fact that they no longer have to pay off each and every policemen to stay out of trouble.

That dignity is unlikely to be fully restored until the police and security forces have been reformed – a task Mr. Morsi’s government has so far largely shied away from. Official foot-dragging in holding security officers accountable as in the case of Port Said and the deaths of hundreds of protesters in the last two years reinforces the perception of the police and security forces as an institution that in the words of scholars Eduardo P. Archetti and Romero Amilcar is “exclusively destined to harm, wound, injure, or, in some cases, kill other persons.” It gives “police power…the aura of omnipotence” who “at the same time lost all legitimacy both in moral and social terms… To resist and to attack the police force is thus seen as morally justified,” they argue.

Reforming the police however is no mean task and is likely to prove far more difficult than Mr. Morsi’s taming of the military last summer by sidelining the country’s two most senior military commanders with the help of the next echelon of officers. Reform will have to mean changing from top to bottom the culture of a force that is larger than the military and counts 450,000 policemen and 350,000 members of the General Security and Central Security Forces.

The political struggles over justice and dignity being fought out on the back of soccer have scarred the sport. Relations between fans and players, strained at the best of times because of fan perceptions of players as mercenaries who play for the highest bidder and who largely aligned themselves with the Mubarak regime, have become even more tense. Fans and players have clashed several times in recent months with players concerned that financially strapped clubs will not be able to pay their salaries and that the pre-longed suspension is effecting their performance.

Joran Viera, coach of Al Ahli arch rival Al Zamalek SC told a paper in the United Arab Emirates this weekend that he was quitting because of the suspension. “I will not stay at Zamalek, I’m leaving. I will return to Cairo on Saturday to put the finishing touches on my resignation. There is no league and I’m a professional coach who doesn’t work just to earn money. They keep saying the league will start but nothing happens ... there is a problem between the Egyptian Football Association and the interior ministry, which does not want to secure the games,” Mr. Viera was quoted as saying.

The EFA and the interior and sport ministers appear to have now compromised at the expense of the game’s fans. The fans however have yet to indicate whether they will play ball.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Egypt considers splitting premier league to reduce fan attendance

Egyptian Sports Minister El-Amry Farouk: Minimize fan attendance

 

By James M. Dorsey

Egyptian soccer appears posed for renewed conflict with the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) and the government floating a proposal to split the premier league into two groups in a bid to reduce fan attendance and weaken militant, highly politicized, street battle-hardened support groups.

The EFA said the proposal was part of discussions with the ministers of sports and interior El-Amry Farouk and Ahmed Gamaleddin aimed at agreeing on a resumption next month of professional soccer that has been suspended since 74 fans were killed in February in a politically loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said.

The EFA said in a statement published on its website that it would meet with the ministers again in the next ten days to set a date for the resumption. Militant supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC have vowed to prevent the return of domestic matches as long as justice has not been served for the 74 dead.

The dead were Al Ahly fans who died in the brawl that erupted at the end of a match against Port Said’s Al Masry SC. The brawl that got out of hand is widely believed to have been instigated in a bid to teach a lesson to the militants who played a key role in last year’s mass protests that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as well as in subsequent protests against the military and the security forces.

More than seventy people, including nine mid-level security officials, are on trial for their role in the brawl in a slow-moving legal process that has left fans and the victims’ families frustrated. Militant soccer fans constitute one of Egypt’s largest civic groups after the ruling Muslim Brotherhood.

Mr. Farouk said the league could be split into a group led by Al Ahly and one led by its Cairo arch rival Al Zamalek SC. "We are discussing how to reduce the number of teams in the 2012-2013 season to minimize fan attendance," Mr. Farouk told reporters.

Zamalek’s administrative manager Hamada Anwar warned that the suspension of soccer was “a disaster” that had hit the clubs financially. He said a resumption of the league was needed to avert a financial crisis. “Besides the clubs, the national team will be badly affected by the championship stoppage. It’s important for all parties and we must work hand in hand to reschedule the league during the short time remaining,” Mr. Anwar was quoted as saying on Zamalek’s website.

Players have organized in recent weeks to demand a resumption of soccer because it threatened their pay and performance. The move has exasperated relations between fans and players that were already strained because a majority of players remained on the side lines of the uprising against Mr. Mubarak or in some cases went as far as supporting the former autocratic leader.

The effort to get the league restarted despite supporter objections comes as militant soccer fans have booked a number of successes in achieving their demands, which include reform of the police and security forces, depriving the police of responsibility for stadium security, a clean-up of corruption in Egyptian soccer and the removal of EFA and club officials associated with the former Mubarak regime. The militants have in recent weeks repeatedly attacked the offices of the EFA, Al Ahly’s training ground and the premises of media organizations.

Besides thwarting efforts this fall to lift the ban on domestic soccer, the fans have also forced a string of Mubarak era officials to resign or withdraw their candidacies for office. The Illegal Gains Authority moreover has banned the chairman of Al Ahly, Hassan Hamdi, from travel and frozen his assets on suspicion of corruption.

Al Ahly fans are likely to further take some satisfaction from a decision this week by the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to put on hold an earlier ruling that overturned an EFA banning of Al Masri for two seasons and its demotion to the second league because of the February brawl, the worst incident in Egyptian sporting history. The court’s freezing was in response to an EFA appeal against its earlier decision.

The EFA appeal followed severe criticism by fans who charged that CAS had overturned the sanctions because the EFA had failed to attend a key hearing in the case. Al Ahly fans will monitor the EFA’s next steps closely, which could influence their attitude toward the resumption of the soccer league.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.

 

Ultras force indefinite suspension of Egyptian soccer league

Ultras clash with supporters of President Morsi

By James M. Dorsey

A decision to indefinitely postpone the lifting of an eight-month ban on professional soccer in Egypt constitutes a milestone in an increasingly successful campaign by militant fans to root out corruption, force reform of the country’s hated security forces and ensure that senior officials responsible for the deaths of supporters and protesters are held accountable.

The decision by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) constitutes a major victory for the highly-politicized, street battle-hardened fans or ultras, the country’s largest civic group after the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, in a tug-of-war with the police and security forces, the country’s most despised institution because of its role in enforcing repression under ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

The decision, at least for now, signifies that years of vicious street battles between the ultras and the security forces have partly shifted from stadiums and streets to politics. The indefinite postponement prompted by a veto on a resumption of soccer by the security forces intent on undermining the ultra’s increasing street-based power and concerned about further tarnishing their image in potential clashes with the fans comes after the lifting of the ban was twice delayed in recent weeks and the ultras’ successful campaign against Mubarak-era soccer officials.

It also comes amid mounting criticism of the government’s failure to hold officials accountable for the deaths of some 850 people during the 18 days of last year’s mass anti-government protests that forced Mr. Mubarak to resign after 30 years in office and the killing of 74 supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC in a politically loaded brawl in February in the Suez Canal city of Port Said.

More than a 100 people were injured on Saturday in clashes between supporters of President Mohammed Morsi and critics, including ultras, angered by the acquittal of 24 people on charges of having participated in the Battle of the Camels during last year’s protests. The ultras played a major role in those protests and served as their defense force against security forces and thugs who attacked the protesters on camels and horses.

Mr. Morsi’s attempt to recover ground backfired when he this weekend had to back down on his firing of the prosecutor general in the case, Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, who defied his order to relinquish his post and be dispatched to the Vatican as Egypt’s ambassador. The president’s defeat highlighted the difficulty he is likely to encounter in seeking to reform the judiciary, which supported the military during its rule in the 17 months following Mr. Mubarak’s resignation and Mr. Morsi’s election in July, as well as the security forces.

The ultras have vowed to prevent a resumption of soccer, suspended since the Port Said incident, as long as those responsible for the worst incident in Egyptian soccer history have not been held accountable. Only nine mid-level security officers are among 74 people standing trial in a slow moving legal process for their role in what many Egyptians see as an attack that was designed by the police to teach the ultras a lesson and cut them down to size.

The ultras have in recent weeks stormed the EFA headquarters several times, attacked Al Ahly’s training ground and targeted media whom they accuse of complicity in support of their demands that also include the withdrawal from office of Mubarak-era EFA and club officials, an end to corruption, depriving police and security forces of their responsibility for security in stadiums and a reform of the police.

The ultras’ campaign has split the soccer community with clubs hurting financially as a result of the suspension, players worried about their jobs and Mubarak-era officials concerned about their careers. Players and supporters earlier this month held rival demonstrations in front of the sports ministry in favor and against a resumption of professional soccer.

The EFA’s newly elected president Gamal Allam, has vowed to improve relations with the ultras – a tough task that may have been slightly eased by the indefinite postponement of a resumption of professional soccer. That task is further complicated by the fact that Mr. Allam is widely viewed as being close to Mubarak associate Hani Abou-Reida, who was forced by the ultras, emboldened by their successes and the power of the street, to withdraw from this month’s race for the soccer body’s presidency,

Besides forcing Mr. Abou-Reida, a member of the executive committee of world soccer body FIFA and a close associate of disgraced FIFA vice president and Asian Football Confederation president Mohammed Bin Hammam, to withdraw, the ultras also forced former Al Ahly goalkeeper Ahmed Shobeir to drop his candidacy for the presidency and sparked an investigation of Al Ahly chairman Hassan Hamdy. The Illegal Gains Authority this month froze Mr. Hamdy’s assets and banned him from travel on suspicion that his wealth stemmed from corrupt dealings. Egypt’s prosecutor also announced that he would investigate financial irregularities in the 2006 African Cup that was organized by the EFA.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

EFA to improve relations with ultras amid mounting clashes

Ultras and supporters of President Morsi clash on Tahrir Square

By James M. Dorsey

The newly elected head of the Egyptian Football Association Gamal Allam has vowed to improve relations with the ultras amid mounting clashes between militant soccer fans, President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and security forces.

Mr. Gallam, the chairman of a soccer club in the upper Egyptian city of Luxor, made his vow a day after thousands of militant, highly politicized, street battle-hardened supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC marched on Mr. Morsi’s palace to demand justice for 74 of their brethren killed in a brawl in Port Said in February.

Ultras, Egypt’s second largest civic group after the Muslim Brotherhood, were a day later among critics of Mr. Morsi who clashed with the president’s supporters on Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The clashes occurred in part as a result of anger at the acquittal of 24 people on charges of having participated in the Battle of the Camels during mass protests that last year toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak when the demonstrators were attacked by men on camels.

The clashes occurred after the prosecutor in the case, Abdel Meguid, defied an order by Mr. Morsi to relinquish his post and be dispatched to the Vatican as Egypt’s ambassador.

Mr. Allam has to come to an understanding with the ultras to achieve his goal of ensuring that next week’s expected lifting of an eight-month old ban on professional soccer imposed after the Port Said incident is not thwarted by the ultras who see the brawl and the acquittal as closely linked.

The ultras oppose the lifting of the ban as long as justice has not been served on the perpetrators of the Port Said brawl, the worst incident in the history of Egyptian sports, and have vowed to disrupt matches if they are restarted on October 17 as planned.

Many in Egypt believe that the brawl was instigated by the security forces and the police, the most despised institutions in Egypt because of their central role in Mr. Mubarak’s repression, in a bid to teach the ultras a lesson. The ultras played a key role as the shock troops of last year’s rising, including in the Battle of the Camels, and emerged as the most militant opponents of the military which governed Egypt until Mr. Morsi’s election in July.

In seeking an understanding with the ultras, Mr. Allam will be negotiating with a group emboldened by a string of successes, starting with last year’s overthrow of Mr. Mubarak. Ultras Ahlawy, the militant support group of Al Ahly, has in recent months attacked the EFA’s headquarters on three occasions, stormed thye club’s training ground and forced their way into media offices.

The actions forced Mubarak era-soccer officials Hani Abou-Reida and former Al Ahly goalkeeper Ahmed Shobeir to withdraw their candidacies in this month’s EFA election. The ultras’ anti-corruption campaign further resulted this week in the freezing of the assets of and a travel ban on Al Ahly chairman Hassan Hamdy by the Illegal Gains Authority on suspicion that his wealth stemmed from corrupt dealings. Egypt’s prosecutor also announced this week that he would be investigating financial irregularities in the 2006 African Cup that was organized by the EFA. Earlier, the ultras succeeded in getting the resumption of professional soccer delayed by a month after the ban was originally to be lifted on September 17.

Mr. Allam is likely to find the going tough with the ultras despite the fact that a number of their demands have been met. The two trickiest issues for the newly elected president are the ultras’ demands that the police and the security be deprived of their responsibility for security at matches and that fans be allowed to attend the games because of the threat of violence. The ultras’ hands have been strengthened by an agreement reached this week in Tunisia with the Tunisian Football Association to lift the ban on fans attending matches.

The two issues go to the core of widespread dissatisfaction in Egypt that there has as yet been no serious attempt at reform of the police and the security forces, the backbone of the Mubarak regime, and that former Mubarak officials and officers responsible for the deaths of protesters and fans have been treated leniently by the courts.

More than 70 people, including nine mid-level security officials are on trial for the Port Said incident in a slow-moving legal process. More senior officials who would have instructed the police to stand aside in Suez Canal city’s main stadium while the Al Ahly fans were attacked by rival fans and men believed to be pro-Mubarak thugs.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Egyptian soccer fan’s anti-corruption campaign gathers steam

In the firing line: Al Ahly chairman Hassan Hamdy

By James M. Dorsey

A campaign by militant Egyptian soccer fans to root out corruption gathered steam this week with the slapping of a travel ban on and the freezing of assets of the chairman of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC by the country’s Illicit Gains Authority (IGA).

Hassan Hamdy, who until recently doubled as head of the lucrative advertising department of the state-owned Al Ahram newspaper, for decades one of Egypt’s most influential media organizations, is the third official this month suspected of corruption and targeted by the militants to be called to account.

The fans, Egypt’s second largest civic group, last week scored a political with a decision by associates of ousted president Hosni Mubarak to withdraw from elections for the board of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA). The decision by world soccer body FIFA executive committee member Hani Abou-Reida and former Al Ahly goalkeeper Ahmed Shobeir to withdraw came in response to a campaign by Ultras Ahlawy, the club’s militant fan group, demanding they be disqualified.

In the last month, Ultras Ahlawy – one of several highly politicised, well-organized, street battle-hardened fan groups – attacked the club’s training ground, the EFA’s headquarters and media organizations to push for a clean-up of Egyptian soccer and media, whom they accuse of corruption and fanning the flames of confrontation.

They also demanded reform of the powerful security forces; depriving the interior ministry’s police and security’s forces -- the country’s most despised institution widely viewed as the brutal enforcers of repression under Mr. Mubarak – of responsibility for security in the stadiums; and the resignation of the EFA and Al Ahly boards.

The militant’s success is likely to boost their resolve to thwart this month’s resumption of professional soccer matches that have been suspended since February when 74 Al Ahly supporters were killed in a politically loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said. The ultras, who played a key role in last year’s overthrow of Mr. Mubarak and in subsequent street battles to ensure achievement of the revolt’s goals, reject a resumption of soccer as long as justice has not been served to those responsible for the Port Said incident.

The ultras succeeded last month in getting the resumption of soccer postponed a month until October 17. Authorities had initially planned to lift the eight-month old suspension on September 17.

With many in Egypt convinced that the Port Said brawl was instigated in a bid to teach the militants a lesson and cut them down to size, the militants have demanded that those in high positions responsible for the worst incident in Egyptian sporting history be called to account. Nine mid-level security officers are among 74 people standing trial for their role in the brawl in a slow-moving legal process.

Ultras were on Tuesday among thousands of Egyptians who demonstrated to commemorate the anniversary of the Maspero killing last year of 27 Coptic Christians in clashes with the military. Ultras carried banners with pictures of former Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and his deputy Lieutenant General Sami Anan with ropes around their necks. "The people want the execution of the Field Marshall," the protesters chanted.

Mr. Tantawi ruled Egypt from the fall of Mr. Mubarak in February of last year until the election in July of Muslim Brother Mohammed Morsi as the country’s first free and fairly elected president. Mr. Morsi was swift after taking office to remove Mr. Tantawi from power.

The ultras emerged after the toppling of Mr. Mubarak as the country’s most militant opponents to military rule. They believe that the military was at least tacitly complicit in the Port Said incident.

Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that Mr. Hamdy was released on Tuesday on a bail of two million Egyptian pounds (USD 330,000) after being questioned by the IGA about the accumulation of his wealth estimated at 500 million pounds (USD 82 million). MENA said Mr. Hamdy had been unable to provide an explanation and had been banned from travel abroad. He also had his assets frozen.

Mr. Hamdy has for the past decade been the chairman of Al Ahly which is Egypt and Africa’s most crowned club with a fan base estimated at 50 million. The club has won Egypt’s championship 34 and the African cup six times. The Ultras Ahlawy Facebook page has more than 570,000 followers.

The ultras have denounced Mr. Hamdy as a "part of the dismantled regime" of Mr. Mubarak, accused him of fraud and charge that he failed to exert sufficient pressure on authorities to hold to account those responsible for the Port Said incident.

"We said before that Hamdy should leave because he conspired with the Egyptian Football Association over the Port Said case. And now that things have become clear for many people, we will not allow Hamdy to tarnish the image of our club. You have run out of credit, you have no option but to depart," Ultras Ahlawy said in a statement on their Facebook page.

Mr. Hamdy is believed to have been under investigation of corruption since last year as a result of his apparent conflict of interest in being head of the advertisement department of al Ahram as well as chairman of Egypt’s most prominent soccer club and until last year chair of the EFA’s sponsorship committee at the same time.

Military police last year were reported to have seized three boxes of documents that Mr. Hamdy and then Al Ahram editor-in-chief Osama Saraya had allegedly attempted to smuggle out of the editor’s office when they were confronted by publishing house employees who suspected that the boxes contained documents that would prove the two men’s involvement in corruption.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Militant soccer fans score political victory

By James M. Dorsey

Militant soccer fans, Egypt’s second largest civic group, scored a political with a decision by associates of ousted president Hosni Mubarak to definitively withdraw from elections for the board of the Egyptian Football Association.

The decision by world soccer body FIFA executive committee member Hani Abou-Reida and former crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC goalkeeper Ahmed Shobeir to withdraw came in response to a campaign by Ultras Ahlawy demanding they be disqualified.

The ultras – one of several highly politicised, well-organized, street battle-hardened fan groups – attacked the club’s training ground, the EFA’s headquarters and media organizations to push their demands, which also include a clean-up of Egyptian soccer and media, whom they accuse of corruption and fanning the flames of confrontation; reform of the security forces; depriving the interior ministry’s police and security’s forces -- the country’s most despised institution widely viewed as the brutal enforcers of repression under Mr. Mubarak – of responsibility for security in the stadiums; and the resignation of the EFA and Al Ahly boards.

The withdrawal of the two candidates constituted not only a victory in their fight for a clean-up of Egyptian soccer but also in an increasing confrontation between fans, who played a key role in last year’s overthrow of Mr. Mubarak, and players who either stood on the side lines of the popular uprising or supported the ousted leader.

The confrontation spilled this week into the streets of Cairo with players and fans holding rival demonstrations in front of the sports ministry in favour and against a resumption of professional soccer that has been suspended since 74 Al Ahly fans were killed in a politically loaded brawl in February in Port Said.

The EFA has said that the eight-month suspension was being lifted and that professional soccer would resume on October 17.

A newly founded group of players, The Voice of Sportsmen, said last week in a statement on Facebook that it was “extremely important that football competitions are resumed because this is our job and our sole source of income. We created that page to send our message to authorities and make our voice heard.  We also want all Egyptian sportsmen to join us… We would like to fully stress on our support for the rights of retribution for the Port Said martyrs, we want swift justice through the legal channels. But that has nothing to do with football resumption."

Many Egyptian second-division players, who are poorly paid, have complained that they could ill-afford the consequences of the protracted suspension. Their concern was echoed by players for premier league clubs.

Frustrated with the slow moving legal proceedings against 74 people, including nine security officials, accused of responsibility for the Port Said incident, Al Ahly fans have vowed to prevent the resumption of matches.

"We will never let the football come back in Egypt unless the field is clean from corruption," said a leader of the Al Ahly ultras.

In withdrawing from the race for the EFA presidency, Mr. Abou-Reida dropped his plans to appeal to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) a decision last month by the Egyptian body to disqualify him on the grounds that he had been a board member for two consecutive terms and needed to wait for four years before again running for office. Mr. Abou-Reida had asserted that his disqualification constituted government interference.

“I decided not to take any action against the decision to disqualify me. I had a chance to go to CAS but I will not take the matter to a non-Egyptian entity,” Mr. Abou-Reida said this week in a television interview.

Mr. Shobeir, who has repeatedly attacked the ultras in public said that he had “said it from the beginning, if Abou-Reida decided to withdraw then I would withdraw.”

The ultras have accused Mr. Abou-Reida, who hails from Port Said, of having obstructed justice in the Port Said case. They charge that he was responsible for the EFA’s failure to attend a CAS hearing on the banning from soccer for two years of Port Said Club Al Masry SC in whose stadium the lethal brawl occurred. The EFA’s absence led the CAS to overturn the EFA’s banning of Al Masry.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Political tensions build in Egyptian soccer

By James M. Dorsey

Political differences between Egyptian soccer players and fans are spilling on to the street of Cairo as Egypt seeks to fend off possible suspension by world soccer body FIFA.

In an escalation of tension with fans, players in Egypt’s premier and second league are gearing up for a demonstration in front of the sports ministry to demand the resumption of professional soccer suspended since a politically loaded brawl in February in which 74 supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC were killed.

The demonstration highlights tensions with fans that go beyond vows by militant, highly-politicized, street battle-hardened Al Ahly fans to prevent a resumption of soccer until justice has been served for the death of their comrades in the Port Said brawl.

The brawl, which widely is believed to have been provoked by security forces in a bid to punish the ultras for their key role in the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak and violent opposition to the military that ruled Egypt until the election in July of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in the country’s first democratic poll, sparked the banning of soccer for most of this year.

Frustrated with the slow moving legal proceedings against 74 people, including nine security officials, accused of responsibility for the Port Said incident and the lack of reform of soccer, Al Ahly ultras last month stormed the grounds where the club’s players were training as well as television studios and the headquarters of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA). They demanded a clean-up of Egyptian soccer and media, whom they accuse of corruption and fanning the flames of confrontation, and reform of the security forces.

The ultras further demanded that the interior ministry’s police and security’s forces -- the country’s most despised institution widely viewed as the brutal enforcers of repression under Mr. Mubarak – be deprived of responsibility for security in the stadiums. They also called for the resignation of the boards of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) and Al Ahly as well as the withdrawal of the candidacy of Mubarak era officials, among whom world soccer body FIFA executive committee member Hani Abou-Reida, as candidates in upcoming EFA elections.

Ultras groups across Egypt constitute the country’s second largest, most organized civic group after Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s foremost political grouping.

"We will never let the football come back in Egypt unless the field is clean from corruption," said a leader of the Al Ahly Ultras.

The EFA has said that professional soccer would resume on October 17.

In a statement on Facebook, a newly founded group of players, The Voice of Sportsmen, said that it was “extremely important that football competitions are resumed because this is our job and our sole source of income. We created that page to send our message to authorities and make our voice heard.  We also want all Egyptian sportsmen to join us… We would like to fully stress on our support for the rights of retribution for the Port Said martyrs, we want swift justice through the legal channels. But that has nothing to do with football resumption," the statement said.

Many Egyptian second-division players, who are usually poorly paid, have complained that they could ill-afford the consequences of the protracted suspension. Their concern was echoed by players for premier league clubs.

Relations between fans and players have much like Egyptian politics been on a rollercoaster since the fall of Mr. Mubarak. Tensions in the first post-Mubarak year made way for a period of reconciliation in the wake of the Port Said brawl, the worst incident in Egyptian sport history, which prompted three Al Ahly players who also formed part of Egypt’s national squad to retire.

Within days Al Ahly militants, responding to an outpour of sympathy from across Egypt including militants of Zamalek, apologized on an especially created Facebook page named “We are sorry Shika” to Zamalek winger Mahmoud Abdel-Razek aka Shikabala, widely viewed as Egypt’s top player, for routinely abusing him verbally during their clubs’ derbies. The abuse frequently led to Shikabala and Al Ahly fans trading insults in heated exchanges.

Breaking with the tradition of soccer players standing on the side lines of popular revolts in the Middle East and North Africa, if not supporting autocratic leaders, starred Al; Ahly striker Mohamed Abou-Treika last month boycotted his club’s Super Cup match against ENPPI, Egypt’s first domestic match since the match suspension, in solidarity with the ultras. His decision symbolized the struggles in virtually every Egyptian institution between post-Mubarak reformers and supporters of the Mubarak-era status quo ante.

Fuelling the growing gap between fans and players is what sociologist Ian Taylor described as resistance to and rejection of the upwardly mobile move of players from their working class origins to a middle class with a Peter Stuyvesant-like jet set lifestyle.  “The player has been incorporated into the bourgeois world, his self-image and behaviour have become increasingly managerial or entrepreneurial, and soccer has become for the player, a means to personal (rather than sub-cultural) success,” Mr. Taylor wrote in an analysis of British soccer violence that in the Middle East and North is reinforced by the political and psychological divide rooted in the neo-patriarchal nature of Arab autocracies.

The ultras booked a first victory in their latest campaign with the EFA’s decision to disqualify Mr. Abou Reida’s candidacy in election scheduled for this month for the soccer body’s presidency.

Egyptian media reports quoting EFA spokesman Azmi Megahed said that FIFA had threatened to suspend the soccer body if it were proven that Mr. Abou-reida was disqualified as a result of government interference. FIFA has reportedly denied issuing such a threat.

Mr. Abou-Reida, a member of Mr. Mubarak’s disbanded National Democratic Party, was suspended on the basis of a court ruling that he had already served as an EFA official for two consecutive terms and could only run again in four years’ time.

Mr. Abou-Reida is challenging the decision and has denied allegations by the ultras that he played a role in a decision by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration of Sport that overturned an EFA ban on his hometown club, Al Masry SC, for two years because of the Port Said incident which occurred during a match against Al Ahly in its stadium.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.