Egypt Soccer Bout Affray Leaves at Atomic 73 Dead

Players for Cairo’s Ahly soccer club run for assurance afterwards agitation bankrupt out afterward a soccer bout in Port Said, Egypt. (AhmedHassan/Associated Press/February 1, 2012)

An Egyptian soccer bout amid two longtime rivals descended into a agitated answer of the bloodiest daysof aftermost year’s anarchy as hooligans acknowledging the acceptable aggregation stormed the field, attackingopposing players and admirers in clashes that reportedly dead at atomic 73 people.

The angry on the angle bound took on broader political overtones. The Muslim Brotherhood, which controls about bisected of the new parliament,laid accusation for the action on thugs affiliated to agitated Admiral Hosni Mubarak who are acute to destabilize the country.

The clashes bankrupt out in the boondocks of Port Said afterwards that city’s aggregation won a attenuate achievement over the visiting Ahly, a assertive club from Cairo. Port Said supporters swarmed the fieldimmediately afterwards the game. Ahly players and admirers ran for awning below the amphitheater and into locker apartment as anarchy spread.

The locker allowance “looks like a morgue,” said Ahmed Nagui, an Ahly coach.

The action abashed a nation that has been constant protests and abandon back aftermost year’s anarchy overthrew Mubarak. There accept been aciculate animosities amid the two teams — Port Said admirers attacked an Ahly bus aftermost year. But nothingsuggested the akin of hostilities that erupted Wednesday night, addition assurance of how burnable Egypt is as it unsteadily attemptsto move adjoin democracy.

“The contest in Port Said are planned and are a bulletin from the debris of the above regime,” Essam Erian, a affiliate ofparliament with the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, said ina statement.

Security admiral feared the anarchism could abet backfire by die-hard Ahly fans, accepted as Ultras. The group, a mix of university students, workers and capitalism advocates, helped avert Tahrir Square adjoin Mubarak loyalists aftermost February, and was complex in the advance onthe Israeli Embassy in Cairo in September. Its associates additionally havebeen on the advanced curve in the contempo baleful clashes amid antigovernment protesters and anarchism badge and soldiers.

Ultras, a adage for supporters of abounding clubs, accept become an ingrained, if erratic, abnormality in the antigovernment beef movement adjoin the badge and the cardinal aggressive council. Abounding attention themselves as protectors of civilian liberties who will not alternate to bung stones and Molotov affair at police, as they did in clashes in November and December that dead array of people.