Soccer fans flee from inside the Port Said Stadium February (Photo: Reuters)
The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) under caretaker chairman Anwar Saleh have demanded that Egypt’s People’s Assembly (the lower house of parliament) consider the victims of last month’s Port Said football tragedy as “martyrs” of Egypt’s January 25 Revolution.
More than 70 people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes between rival fans in Port Said Stadium following a 1 February Premier League match between Egypt sides Ahly and Masry.
“The EFA urges MPs and Parliament Speaker Saad El-Katatni not to differentiate between the Ahly-Masry match victims and the martyrs of last year’s revolution,” read a statement published on the EFA’s official website.
Members of Egypt’s first post-Mubarak parliament have demanded that the government provide LE100,000 each to the families of those killed in various clashes between protesters and security forces since last year’s uprising. The families of those injured, meanwhile, should each receive pay-outs of LE15,000, say parliamentarians.
EFA’s elected board under previous chairman Samir Zaher resigned in the wake of the tragedy, while all domestic football activity in Egypt has been indefinitely suspended.
Hard-core fans of Ahly and Zamalek – dubbed the Ultras Ahlawy and the Ultras White Knights – have organised several demonstrations to demand justice for victims of the Port Said tragedy. Egyptian authorities, meanwhile, have yet to charge anyone with responsibility for the country’s worst-ever sports-related disaster.
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