Saturday, March 24, 2012

Egypt's football club suspended

The Egyptian Football Association has suspended one of the country's leading teams over match violence that left at least 74 people dead in February.

Port Said club al-Masry was banned from competitions until the end of 2013 over the clashes at its stadium during a game with Cairo's team al-Ahly.

The ban triggered clashes between al-Masry fans and soldiers, reports say.

Al-Ahly was ordered to play four games behind closed doors. The club's coach and captain were suspended and fined.

Supporters of the Cairo club denounced the football association's punishment as weak, saying they would hold a sit-in in the team's grounds on Sunday.

Last week, Egypt's chief prosecutor charged 75 people with murder or negligence over the 1 February violence.

Nine police officers were reportedly among those facing charges.

Rumours that the police had failed to intervene sparked days of clashes across the country in which a further 16 people died.

Old rivals

Al-Masry won the game 3-1, but as the match ended their fans invaded the pitch, attacking al-Ahly players and fans.

The two teams are long-standing rivals whose games have required a large security presence.

But there were claims that fans had been allowed to take knives and other weapons into the stadium.

In the days following the riot, large protests blaming the military government for the deaths were held outside the interior ministry in the capital, Cairo.

The BBC's John Leyne in Cairo says many Egyptians believe the authorities either orchestrated the violence or allowed it to continue because of the al-Ahly fans' support of the revolution which overthrew Hosni Mubarak last year.

The football league season was cancelled in the wake of the unrest and has not yet restarted.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-17496555

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