28 football fans killed in ‘deliberate massacre’: Ultras. At least 22 football fans were killed Sunday after police attempted to disperse fans whilst entering the Air Force Stadium in Cairo. Security forces deployed at the Air Defence Stadium dispersed Zamalek fans before Enppi match on Sunday, at least 22 were killed. (Photo courtesy of UWK fan group official Facebook page) State TV announced Sunday that 22 were found dead in the events that preceded the match, while hardcore Zamalek fan group the Ultras White Knights said 28 were killed. UWK described the violence against Zamalek fans as a “deliberate massacre”, claiming the special security measures were prepared only one day before the match, and had never been used in football stadiums inside or outside Egypt. The fans were entering the stadium to watch the game between Zamalek and Enppi teams.
Authorities announced before the match that only 10,000 fans will be allowed. A narrow metal tunnel was put inside the gates in order to reduce the numbers of fans entering at once. Soccer Deaths Raise Stakes for Egypt's General-Turned-President Al Sisi | James Dorsey. The death of at least 40 militant, highly politicized, and street battle-hardened Egyptian soccer fans in clashes with security forces raises the stakes for general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi's efforts to suppress political dissent. The incident is one of the worst in Egyptian sporting history and the latest in a number of mass killings involving security forces since Mr.
Al Sisi overthrew of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first and only democratically elected president, in a military coup in 2013. It resembled in some ways a politically loaded soccer brawl in Port Said three years ago in which 74 militant fans or ultras died and is likely to re-energize the ultras, one of Egypt's largest social movements mostly organized in rival groups supporting a specific soccer team. Ultras played a key role in the toppling in 2011 of President Hosni Mubarak, subsequent protests against his military successors as well as Mr.
Mr. Two courts recently rejected the appeal of Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. At least 19 dead after police fire on Egyptian football supporters | Football. Egyptian football fans were killed on Sunday evening after police fired teargas and shotgun pellets on supporters queueing to enter a Cairo stadium, in the latest spasm of state-led violence that has characterised much of Egypt’s post-revolutionary history. The clashes prompted the government to postpone the Egyptian Premier League indefinitely, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. Survivors claimed that police fired on ticket-holding fans from Zamalek SC, Egypt’s second biggest club, as they tried to enter the Air Defence stadium, a military-owned stadium in eastern Cairo, to watch a league game. But the interior ministry, which governs the police, said they began firing after ticketless fans tried to break in, and that the deaths were caused by the ensuing panic.
“They tried to break the stadium gates by force, which forced security to stop them,” the ministry said in a statement that claimed that the deaths were “because of the stampede”. Death toll estimates varied. Ribbon of Saint George. The pattern is thought to symbolise fire and gunpowder. It is also thought to be derived from the colours of the original Russian imperial coat of arms (black eagle on a golden background). The Ribbon of St George or St. George's Ribbon (Russian: Георгиевская ленточка, G'yeorgiyevskaya l'yentochka) constitutes one of the most recognised and respected symbols of military valour in modern Russia.
It is widely associated with the commemoration of World War II and especially with the units who were awarded the collective Guard battle honours during the conflict. The ribbon consists of a black and orange bicolour pattern, with three black and two orange stripes. History[edit] The Georgian ribbon emerged as part of the Order of St George, established in 1769 as the highest military decoration of Imperial Russia (and re-established in 1998 by the Russian Federation). St George Standard of the Life Guard Cuirassier Regiment 1817Imperial Cross of St. Georgievskaya Lenta Action[edit] See also[edit] How Al Ahly's football fans defended Egypt's revolution. Al Ahly is the most successful football team in African history. The Cairo club has won the African Champions League a record six times and 35 Egyptian league titles. One supporter described them to me as an "Egyptian treasure".
When I asked what the club means, another fan replied with the simple one word answer: "life". Across the world, football brings hope to people living hard lives in hard times. Al Ahly was founded at the beginning of the twentieth century as a club for Egyptian nationalists and those who opposed British colonial rule. Ahmed Ghaffar, better known as Heema, is a founding member of Ultras Ahlawy, the team's hardcore supporters. Side by side Ahly’s fierce local rivals, Zamalek, were the team of the Brits and the monarchy. It was Ahly and Zamalek Ultras who led marches into Tahrir Square and in some areas, where security forces had blocked exits, it was Ultras who would stand on roofs and threw down Molotov cocktails. Onto the streets. Boys on Film: Communism & Football | First Touch. By Dave Bowler The ugly sister of 1930s fascism was communism. There was little real difference between them in many ways, for under either regime, the wider public lived in a totalitarian state where independent ideas and thoughts were the kind of thing that might end up with a meeting with the Gestapo or the Stasi.
In such environments, the free spirited nature of football offered both threat and a means of controlling the masses. Those twin strands were captured in the BBC documentary “Communism And Football”, itself the twin of the “Fascism And Football” programme. Inevitably, much of the programme centres upon Soviet Russia in the wake of the 1917 revolution, a nation where the capital, Moscow, had four main football clubs, all of which were operated by various branches of the state apparatus, most notably Dynamo Moscow run by the secret police and CSKA, the Army team. That saw them supplant Dynamo, a team beloved of the head of the secret police, Lavrenty Beria.
Venezuelans on streets again as protest leader awaits trial | World news. Venezuelans have taken to the streets for the second time in ten days in opposing marches for and against the Maduro administration. The government has asked women to rally around the presidential palace, while the opposition has called on supporters to protest against the country's mounting street crime and to demand the disarmament of violent pro-government groups.
What began two weeks ago in the western state of Táchira as a student-led street movement demanding that the government address safety concerns on a university campus following the assault of a student soon spread to other cities. In the capital, Caracas, the street marches were spearheaded by opposition leader Leopoldo López, who called for protests to continue until the president, Nicolás Maduro stepped down from power. López currently awaits trial in a military jail. Since the protests began, 10 people have died, 137 have been injured and 104 arrested, according to government figures. Why is Ukraine in turmoil? 22 February 2014Last updated at 13:34 ET Ukraine is in turmoil after its bloodiest week in decades. Days of deadly clashes between anti-government protesters and police have culminated in parliament voting to oust President Viktor Yanukovych.
Although he has denounced the act as a coup d'etat, the capital Kiev and his presidential administration are out of his hands. For three months, anti-government protesters were involved in a stand-off with the authorities that oscillated between calm and violence. On 18 February, the violence escalated dramatically, with policemen being shot, and riot police moving in to clear the peaceful protest camp on Independence Square. The stakes for Ukraine and its 45 million people are enormous, with the country's fate now part of a wider strategic battle between the West and Russia.
What are the protests about? Protesters want nothing less than President Viktor Yanukovych's resignation Unloved president, radicalised country Ukrainian voices What is at stake? Bayern Munich embrace anti-Nazi history after 80 years of silence | Raphael Honigstein | Football | The Observer. The Maccabi Munich pitch which bears Kurt Landauer's name. The first match was played in April 2010. Photograph: Alexandra Beier/Bongarts/Getty Images Bayern Munich have around 12 million fans in Germany, a number that is dwarfed only by those who dislike the club with equal passion.
And Bayern would not have it any other way. They actively play on a heightened sense of Bavarian-ness, on a confidence that verges on arrogance and describe themselves as "a family" to create an "us and them" dynamic. "We cultivate this polarisation," Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the CEO, says. "Partly because it means that we have constant media exposure. " This aggressive marketing – and continued success on the pitch, with the Champions League final against Chelsea on Saturday – has made Bayern a blue-chip brand, representing West Germany's golden, Franz Beckenbauer-led era of the 70s and the promise of the current generation.
On the club's founding charter from 1900, two out of 17 signatories were Jewish. Boys on Film: Communism & Football | First Touch. Catch up. Ukrainian Ultras and the Unorthodox Revolution | FutbolgradFutbolgrad. By David McArdle and Manuel Veth - The revolutionary fervour sweeping Ukraine in the form of anti-government protests has in recent weeks gained sharp momentum throughout the country’s football supporter community.
Events in Egypt and in Turkey provided a reminder of how football supporters can offer a convenient base for organising mass political protests. What is curious about Ukraine’s case, however, is the defensive role these football supporters are playing. Rather than protesting per se they purport to be apolitical, merely protecting those who wish to express their dissent. In Ukraine, much like the aforementioned examples, it appears that a diverse selection of fanatical and extreme football fans, hereon referred to as ‘Ultras’, has formed a temporary alliance, transcending geographical complexities and fierce club rivalries, to the significant detriment of the incumbent regime. A Battle of Thugs – a Necessary Counterbalance?
Writing on the truck for Ultras United We Stand. Murky Turkish football politics mesh with massive corruption scandal. James M. Dorsey By James M. Dorsey Always murky, Turkish football politics have become even murkier as a politics-laden match-fixing scandal meshes with a corruption investigation that targets Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his closest associates.
Defendants in both scandals – Mr Erdogan and the management of one of Turkey’s most storied clubs – portray the allegations against them as part of a power struggle between the prime minister and a self-exiled preacher who heads one of the world’s most formidable Islamist movements. To tens of thousands of anti-government protesters mobilised last Sunday by fans of Istanbul’s Fenerbahce Spor Kulubu for the largest anti-government demonstration since last June’s Gezi Park protests on Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the two scandals are expressions of a growing rot in Turkish politics and society.
Few doubt that Turkish football is riddled with match-fixing and hampered by an incestuous relationship with politics. James M.