Egypt inches towards return of militant fans to stadium terraces
By James M. Dorsey
Egypt may be inching towards a return to the stands of
soccer fans, who played a key role in the 2011 toppling of President Hosni
Mubarak and have been barred entry into stadiums for much of the last five
years.
Clubs, players and fans see a June 28 CAF Champions League
match between storied Cairo club Al Ahli SC and Ivory Coast’s ASEC Mimosas
Abidjan as a dry run for a gradual lifting of the ban that has repeatedly
sparked at times deadly clashes between militant, street battle-hardened fans
and security forces.
International matches have been largely exempted from the
ban to shield the government from potential accusations of responsibility for
the poor performance of an Egyptian squad because it lacked the support in the
stadium of its supporters.
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Next week’s Al Ahli match is however likely to be a litmus
test because it will be attended by 15,000 fans, the highest number since the
ban was imposed on the eve of the 2011 popular revolt. The government has
moreover harked back to an initial understanding first reached in 2013 but
never implemented in which the interior ministry, clubs and militant fans
agreed that security forces would be replaced in stadiums by private security
firms.
"A private security company will be in charge of the
stands. This match will be another step forward towards the full return of
spectators to Egyptian stadiums," said Al Ahli executive Sherin Shams.
The ministry’s consent to the use of private security
companies, many of which are managed by former senior military officials,
constituted implicit recognition that the country’s brutal, unreformed security
forces are as much part of Egypt’s security problems as they are part of its
solution.
The consent also appears likely to be an effort by the
ministry and the security forces to shore up their tarnished images. In
internal memos leaked to journalists earlier this year, interior ministry
officials called for the boosting of the ministry's media image and monitoring
capabilities, including the hosting by popular television shows of former
police generals and stepped-up monitoring of news websites on a 24-hour basis.
Egypt’s security forces have long been one of the country’s most
despised institutions. Almost weekly clashes with security forces during soccer
seasons in the years before Mr. Mubarak’s downfall turned militant fans, who played
a key role in the revolt as well as most anti-government protests since, into
one of Egypt’s foremost social movements.
More than 70 Al Ahli fans were killed in 2012 in a stadium
in the Suez Canal city of Port Said in a politically loaded brawl that was
widely seen as an attempt by the security forces and the military to cut the
fans down to size that got out of hand. Last year, 20 supporters of Al Ahli
rival Al Zamalek SC died in clashes with security forces outside a Cairo
stadium.
Fans in April forced their way into a stadium in protest
against the ban on supporters attending football matches. At the Borg Al Arab
stadium in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Ultras Ahlawy stormed the
pitch during an African Championship match against the backdrop of growing criticism
of general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and protests against his
handing over to Saudi Arabia of two islands in the Red Sea during a visit to
Cairo in May by Saudi King Salman.
The protesters, although far smaller in number than those
that toppled Mubarak, adapted the slogans of the 2011 popular revolt: calls of
“Bread, freedom – the islands are Egyptian!” replaced the 2011 revolt’s “Bread,
freedom and justice.” An Egyptian court this month ruled against the return of
the islands.
Continued clashes with fans who repeatedly have over the
years targeted the interior ministry have persuaded Mr. Al-Sisi to move
government offices out of the centre of Cairo.
Mr. Al-Sisi recently inaugurated a new office of the
Interior Ministry at the Police Academy in New Cairo, east of the Egyptian
capital. The academy joined the prosecutor-general, state security, and
judicial bodies in an effort to deprive protesters of symbols at a time of
mounting discontent.
“The security situation is connected to the targeting of
these institutions by a number of protesters centred in downtown Cairo. They
seek to spread chaos throughout the country, especially after the
demonstrations became unfortunately chaotic themselves. And they’re attempting
to break the aura of authority around state institutions by putting them under
siege, covering their walls with graffiti of vulgar images and language
degrading to those who work there… The security challenges the country is going
through have forced the ministry to accelerate its construction plans,” General
Ahmad al-Badry, the former head of the Police Academy, told Al
Monitor during the inauguration.
General Badry’s acknowledgement of the street power of the
fans followed an unprecedented bid in February by Mr. Al-Sisi, who heads one of
the most repressive governments in recent Egyptian history, to reach out to his
opponents.
In his government’s initial recognition of the power of the
fans, Mr. Al-Sisi phoned in to a television programme on the fourth anniversary
of the Port Said incident to invite militant fans to appoint ten of their
members to independently investigate the incident.
It was the first time Mr. Al-Sisi reached out to his
opponents, many of whom have been killed by the interior ministry’s security
forces, forced underground or into exile, or are lingering in prisons where
they risk abuse and torture.
Ultras Ahlawy declined the invitation saying it could not be
accuser and judge at the same time but kept the door to a dialogue open.
Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a just
published book with the same title.
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