“This is not football. This is a war.”
A distressed Mohamed Aboutrika was shouting into his mobile phone, live on Egyptian television, as tragedy unfolded around him at the Port Said Stadium.
Four years earlier, Aboutrika had scored the winning goal for Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations final, delivering the Pharaohs the second of what would be three consecutive continental triumphs. Now, he was trapped amid chaos, witnessing the worst moment in his country’s football history.
“A fan has just died in the dressing room in front of me,” he told Al Ahly TV. “The security forces left us, they didn’t protect us. I call for the league to be cancelled. Today can never be forgotten.”
On February 1, 2012, 74 people died in the Port Said disaster after a riot followed the end of a match between Al Masry and Al Ahly, the country’s dominant club. Until then, the Egyptian Premier League had been one of the most vibrant and volatile on the planet – a melting pot of inter-club rivalries and political turmoil. In a turbulent decade since, barely a single fan has been allowed inside a stadium for a domestic match.
“THE POLICE STOOD WATCHING, THEN AMBULANCES WERE LATE – I CARRIED SEVERAL DEAD FANS”
Al Ahly supporters accounted for 72 of the victims in Port Said, and many have remained steadfast in their belief about the reasons for the riot that took place: revenge.
“I’m sure there are some hidden hands behind this,” Al Ahly board member Khaled Mortagy said in the days immediately after the
