Arguably, football (soccer) is the most loved sport around the world. From domestic league championships in respective nations to the once in four years World Cup, football keeps its fans glued to their TV sets round the year.
Nevertheless, the sport has been associated often with hooliganism resulting in riots, which injures and kills many people.
Yesterday, a similar incident transpired in Egypt where the local police clashed with Zamalek football fans, in the process killing at least 25 fans.
Egypt soccer riot killed at least 25 fans
The Egypt football riot that erupted at the Cairo stadium is said to be the worst since the sports violence that took place back in 2012. 74 people were killed in 2012 before the batch between Egyptian Premier League clubs ENPPI and Zamalek.
Since the violence took place yesterday even before the match began, the local government decided to postpone the Premier League indeterminately.
When reporters spoke with the police, they claimed the supporters belonged to the Ultra White Knights, which is a hard-core fan group of Zalamek football.
Aware that the situation could escalate, the police fired tear gas at the angry fans. One of the witnesses present at the scene had this to say, “We were inside the stadium when the clashes began outside. There was a police car on fire and they were shooting birdshot and tear gas.”
Ultra White Knights and the local police clashed
The commotion sent the people running helter-skelter, not caring for one another, which resulted in at least 25 people getting injured. Local news agency MENA said that most of the injured suffered from either bruising or broken bones.
Ultra White Knights, otherwise simply known as Ultras, are infamous for clashing with the police regularly during football matches. People claim that the group is deeply politicised.
As per reports, scuffle broke even outside the Cairo morgue where beloved ones of the dead arrived to identify them.
In a statement, the government said, “Because of these sad events it has been decided to postpone the league to a time that will be decided later”.
