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Thursday Kickoff: Egypt FA board dissolved, Barca ties and more

Egypt Riot (Reuters)

By FRANCO PANIZO

A day after a riot at a club soccer game in Egypt left at least 74 dead and many others injured, Egypt's prime minister has dissolved the Egyptian FA's board.

Kamal el-Ganzouri announced the decision to dissolve the board during Thursday's emergency parliamentary session, and also said that the governor of Port Said (where the game took place) and the area's police chief have resigned.

FIFA, too, has taken action, as it wants answers from the Egyptian FA after violence erupted following Al Masry's 3-1 win over Al-Ahly on Wednesday. Fans stormed the field after the surprise result, some reportedly with knives, and that led to the violent scenes which claimed the lives of 74.

There have been claims that security at the game did not do enough to stop the violence and that it was linked with the political power struggle in the country.

Here are more stories to get your Thursday going:

MESSI MISSES PENALTY KICK AS BARCELONA DRAWS

Barcelona was held to a 1-1 draw by Valencia on Wednesday in a Copa del Rey semifinals first leg that saw Lionel Messi miss a penalty kick. In a rare moment, Messi was denied of the go-ahead goal in the 56th minute when Brazilian goalkeeper Diego Alves guessed correctly by diving low to his own left. Valencia had originally taken the lead in the game off a finish from Jonas, but Carles Puyol evened things up before halftime.

The second leg of the semifinals series will be played at Camp Nou on Feb. 8.

BOLTON HOLDS ARSENAL TO SCORELESS DRAW

Bolton Wanderers took a much-needed point in their fight against relegation on Wednesday, as they played Arsenal to a scoreless draw. Arsenal will rue its missed chances in a match it could have won, with most of the looks on goal coming in the first half. Thierry Henry played 21 minutes in the game for Arsenal while Tim Ream did not dress for Bolton (he is resolving some passport issues in the United States).

There were four other Premier League matches that took place on Wednesday. Fulham and West Bromwich Albion played to a 1-1 draw, Sunderland recorded a 3-0 win over Norwich City, Newcastle United took a 2-0 triumph over Blackburn, and Aston Villa and Queens Park Rangers tied, 2-2. 

LAZIO DENIES AC MILAN CHANCE TO GO ATOP STANDINGS

AC Milan was unable to move into first place in Serie A on Wednesday after losing to Lazio, 2-0, on a pair of late goals. Hernanes gave Lazio the lead 14 minutes before the final whistle and Tommaso Rocchi added another goal for the hosts in the 85th. Milan's loss leaves them one point behind league leaders Juventus.

RONALDINHO HELPS FLAMENGO ADVANCE IN COPA LIBERTADORES

Flamengo reached the group stage of the Copa Libertadores on Wednesday, and it can partially thank Ronaldinho for that. Having been part of the team that lost the first leg, 2-1, to Bolivian club Real Potosi last week, the Brazilian attacker sparked Flamengo's comeback on aggregate by scoring a goal and setting up another in a 2-0 win. Ronaldinho set up a headed goal with a free kick in the first half before finding the back of the net in second-half stoppage time with an effort from inside the area.

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What do you think of FIFA's demand for Egypt to open a full investigation? Surprised Messi and Barcelona were held to a draw in such a big game? Do you see AC Milan winning Serie A this season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Sad day for anyone who loves football. Soccer is just a sport to entertain people. I condolences to the families who have lost your family on this match. I think FIFA should cancel football in such countries for a year or more as punishment.

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  2. Not really trying to compare the two — a riot with 74 or more killed is obviously on a different scale — but just showing that fan-on-fan violence is not unknown in the U.S. There’s also the Raiders/49ers incident that others on this thread have described. My larger point, in fact, is that U.S. sports fans generally don’t organize themselves into mobs to attack other fans. (They have been known to attack property, however, whether because of a victory or because of a loss.)

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  3. Brian Stow, and the incident at the Raiders-49ers preseason game.

    I’m sure googling Brian Stow will be more than sufficient.

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  4. Last year, a San Francisco Giants baseball fan went to see them play the Los Angeles Dodgers. After the game, he was attacked by a few Dodger fans and went into a coma. He’s still recovering.

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  5. Yes, security personnel were in a crappy situation. But that’s their job – to protect others by, if neccessary, putting themselves in risky situations. That’s why in the military, there is no worse crime than deserting. For police/security officers to make no effort to save innocent bystanders because it would involve putting themselves in harms way, is not just cowardice and insubordination, it is (in most countries) a crime.

    My guess is they were following orders.. But if it was just them being cowards, Egypt needs to find a way to punish and make an example of them.

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  6. FIFA officials should not be allowed to use video as evidence against the Egyptians because of these luddites refuse to allow it to help officials call goals. If we were to use FIFA logic to sum of the violence in Egypt it would be this: The uprising was caused by the “Human Factor” of the game.

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  7. The level of violence and mayhem is extreme, and appalling, but the feelings underlying these events are certainly not limited to places like Egypt. A recent article about fans in Scotland (not just Rangers vs. Celtic) included plenty of comments about how fans of Club A truly *hate* fans of Club B. These weren’t members of “ultra” groups or hooligans, but ordinary fans, who don’t just root for their team, and against the other team, but who direct just as much (if not more) vitriol toward the opposing fans. U.S. sports are not immune to this type of nonsense either, as the tragic incidents in L.A./S.F. show, but they rarely seem to be the result of organized groups.

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  8. Well, uh, assuming that the shake-up with Egypt’s FA doesn’t lead to mass firing …

    Because the violence happened on a pitch as opposed to Tahrir Square, whatever fixture the national team has coming up is going to be of the utmost symbolic importance in showing the unity of the team and showing the Egyptian people that they can still be proud of their football despite this event. It’s going to be hard work for Bradley to bring stability back to his team so that they, in turn, can bring peace of mind to their fans. For their sake, I hope Bob has had enough exposure to Egyptian soccer culture in the few months he’s been with them. Also, I hope FIFA doesn’t screw this up and ban Egypt from matches because it would be demoralizing.

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  9. Clearly I can’t speak to what the security personnel were doing or why they did it. However, if they did step in and try to stop people from rioting, and a dozen people died, we’d be having a completely different story, right? It’s not exactly a lose-lose situation, but pretty close.

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  10. Yeah, I mean, for me, it’s only a “here versus there” thing (I currently live “there”, by the way: in Czech Republic) because there are some social and cultural factors in North America which have prevented it from becoming so. There’s not an ounce of xenophobia in it. Without turning this into an essay, some of the obvious reasons are:

    – The relative lack of sporting history in much of American sports.

    – The predominance of inter-city and opposed to intra-city rivalry in American sports.

    – The relative lack of factions or subgroups in American culture with sporting affiliations.

    – The relative stability and homogeneity of American culture.

    – The fact that there is no overwhelmingly predominant “national” sport.

    – The relative lack of fanaticism and hooliganism in American sports.

    – Etc., etc.

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  11. Whoops, I take it back. I think I mistook some people in black pants and black coats as police in the first viewing yesterday. I guess it looks like the police did nothing.

    Also, I’m hearing that there were several people run onto the field to celebrate earlier in the game after a goal and the police didn’t do anything to them, nor did they do anything during the fighting during halftime. Again… it’s just too much to really know what’s going on at this point.

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  12. I watched the same video.. it seemed some police tried to help the players get off the field and that was about it…

    I don’t know much about egyptian police proceedures, but I assume the police there were from Port Said so I don’t know that I would expect them to crack down on Port Said fans that rush the field to celebrate. It seems to me that at first it didn’t look like a “riot” as much as a celebration, until some fights broke out. Maybe the police would have been better off immediately surrounding the visiting fans still in the stands than trying to do something about the home fans on the field… but again, I’m going off very limited footage.

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  13. Agree with you on the video. Incredibly disturbing how little the police/sercurity tried to do. They all literally just stood there, and I am convinced they were just following orders. Hopefully someone gets to the bottom of this.

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  14. There have been massive outcries in Egypt since them blaming the the military. In fact most Egyptians believe that the military started the riots to incite destabilization.

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  15. A LOT of rumors flying now about the background to this disaster. People on the ground are claiming the military locked the gates and it was a setup to get back at the Ah-Ahly fans that started the revolution last spring.

    However, I’m still not convinced it’s not just hooliganims/violence for violence’s sake. Yesterday before the news really got going on this riot I googled in a bid to look for news on it and was confronted with countless stories about old soccer riots. Ones between Egyptian teams, ones between Egyptian national fans and fans from Algeria, and ones between Egyptian teams’ fans and other African Champions League teams’ fans. In short, soccer riots aren’t really that rare in Egypt so to automatically assume that this is part of some political scheme/conspiracy/revenge hit is a bit of a jump to me.

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  16. We’re talking a lot about the soccer culture in Egypt because of this but I’m going to say that this riot says a lot more about the political state of Egypt than any sports culture. There is so much tension between the new government (still majory controlled by the military until the constitution is formed) and the activists who led the revolution. Not to mention that parlimentary elections, the first ones under this new situation, are still occuring. Combine this with police who have been accused again and again of failing to protect the public since the dictatorship fell and I’m not shocked at this situation. It’s incredibly sad but unfortunately not at all too surprising.

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  17. I don’t know if anyone watched the 4 minute video on last nights post about the riot. From what I can see in the video, the police in riot gear absolutely allowed this to take place and did nothing to stop it. I find it difficult to blame the Egyptian FA for the police purposely failing to prevent/contain the riot/pitch invasion.

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  18. Yeah, I see what you mean. Thanks for the clarification. I just get a little touchy when analysis of these kinds of events touch on the “those folks over there” mentality (not saying that you are).

    I firmly believe that any group of people in any society is capable of doing really sad things. Your pointing out that we have done well to keep politics and tribal identity (and the violence that expresses it) out of our sporting events is astute and one we should do well to continue to encourage. The kind of rioting that we’ve seen in the past 10 years to me is actually very alarming and I’m not sure why sporting leagues haven’t done more to nip this in the bud.

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  19. So, FIFA’s action is that they want answers. That organization always had a real backbone (sarcasm). We’ll see how they pursue this.

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  20. Well, I agree to an extent, but that wasn’t really my point. My point is that this is much bigger than sports and that the sporting violence is a reflection of the social and political tumult in the region. Part of the reason we don’t see this kind of violence in North America is a) that the sporting culture isn’t nearly as intertwined with a collective identity as it elsewhere with but also b) that there isn’t the same kind of social and political instability here. When I mention sports as an outlet, it’s clear that letting off some steam after a 40-hour work week is altogether different than the frustration and grievances being aired by the Egyptian population.

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  21. pd: Its all good.

    My question for Bradley is with the dissolution of the Egyptian FA what does it mean for their international team? Whose running it? I doubt Bradley has the power to arrange friendlies w/o approval from the board?

    I would be more incline to think that planned demonstrations (which could lead to riots) are more likely to happen during international fixtures because those games tend to have larger audiences. However, I realized that this riot was probably more of a spontaneous eruption of madness caused by volatile social conditions with a emotional game as the trigger.

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  22. while I’m not comparing this disaster to anything that goes on over here in the US and Canada, you can hardly call riots looting and burning cars that follow championchip games genteel.

    but you are right, sports don’t kill people, mismanagement of crowds kill people.

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  23. totally agree. this is a case where I think that FIFA won’t really have a leg to stand on if they protest the disbanding on the part of the prime minister.

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  24. In terms of Bradley, the level of violence would obviously be cause for concern, but international games would seem less grist for internal feuding where he really has to worry, and Bradley doesn’t seem like a mercenary who takes off first whiff of trouble. But only he knows what he thinks, and if this escalates much it would probably be force majeure where he could walk.

    Of course if Egypt gets banned maybe they’re playing no one…..

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  25. considering that a lot of breaking leads are posted to this blog, yes.

    I apologize if I was harsh, but it was the second question on the thread with no mention of anything else, it just jarred me a bit. I’m sure that nothing was meant by it.

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  26. I’ll be interested if FIFA pursues the political interference issue in light of the grander issues. But they’ve definitely banned FAs for less-politically-charged versions of firing leadership figures, etc.

    Personally I think everyone resigning/being fired is bush league. Baby with the bath water, at a time when stability might be more appropriate, and it happens a lot in developing countries. Style over substance. Real substance was pausing league games til they work out the issues. The rest is for consumption.

    It sounds like groups of thugs spoiling for a fight because it sounds like some people loosely associated with al-Masry were throwing things and instigating during the match and then rushed the field after the game was over. They won 3-1 so it’s not like they rushed the field in protest.

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  27. I can’t believe 74 people died. That’s a massacre. Egypt is an extremely uncivilized place. Look at what happened to Lara Hogan.

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  28. I have to say I agree with this. Egyptian society has problems and the ultra violence is probably just one manifestation of that, but that doesn’t excuse a failure of those with responsibility for football to address the violence associated with the ultras.

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  29. I’m not saying the Eygptian PM is wrong – however, is there a chance Eygpt could face FIFA sanctions because they are interfering with their FA – I know there’s rules about that. Just curious.

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  30. I’m not a big fan of most American sports, but one of the benefits of North American sporting culture is that it never mixes with politics or religion or anything more volatile than petty team/city rivalry and “had too much to drink”. When things go pear shaped, we get isolated fights and vandalism. In much of the rest of the world, however, team support can be so wrapped up with issues of personal and political identity that it becomes impossible to separate those things. When political and religious issues flare up, that’s when you start to see explosive violence at the stadium. And the phenomenon is nothing new: the Nika riots that took place in Constantinople fifteen-hundred years ago parallel current unrest in Egypt in a very similar way, and hint that there me some way to go before this current situation unfolds completely, but it would be short sighted to view it as a solely footballing matter. In this case, sport can provide an outlet for potentially explosive political or religious tensions, but can also present an ideal staging ground for boilover.

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  31. Really?
    almost 80 dead and you’re worried about a comment on an American soccer blog?

    My condolences to the victims. But seriously what does this mean for Bradley? Also, is this considered government interference by FIFA??

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  32. Come on. Let’s not assume you can only care about one situation, and let’s not assume that just because you ask a question about one situation that means you care more about it than the obvious tragedy.

    It’s a legitimate question, although I doubt anyone knows anything right now.

    But, in all honesty, maybe he resigns. I wouldn’t blame him.

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  33. A big mess. I can’t imagine Egypt plays any national team home games for years. Bradley should renegotiate his contract with more emphasis on security and some hazard pay!

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  34. “A day after a riot at a club soccer game in Egypt left at least 74 dead and many others injured, Egypt’s prime minister has dissolved the Egyptian FA’s board.”

    I respect the desire for governments to not “interfere”, but Tthis should have done this after Egypt/Algeria in 2009. There has been a tacit approval for excessively violent ultra culture in Egypt for awhile.

    Why does it take people dying before people get into gear…

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  35. Can’t imagine the pain of those who kissed a loved one as they left to go watch a soccer game – never imagining they wouldn’t come home solely because they were a fan of the wrong team. My heart goes out to them as I pray that God comforts them, and especially any of the injured who may still be in bad shape.

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  36. will be interesting to see how FIFA deals with the dismisal of the board as they do not allow goverment interference. I do think that everyone needs to be involved just not sure how FIFA will look upon it.

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