Soccer fans light Port Said Stadium on fire | Image Source: REUTERS/Stringer
73 soccer fans and one Egyptian police officer are dead after what the press is calling an “unprecedented rampage of violence” followed a soccer match in Egypt.
The bloody riot was apparently justified action by fans after witnessing Al-Masry, the home team beat Egypt’s Al-Ahly 3-1.
Unbelievable.
I would hardly call bloody football riots unprecedented, however. There is a historical reason the sport has earned the infamous title of “most violent fans“, and this is it hardly surprising behaviour, I’m sorry to say.
Egypt’s Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the country’s ruling military council, ordered two helicopters be sent to Port Said, the scene of violent soccer clashes, to fly out some of the visiting Al Ahli soccer team and its fans, military sources said. (Source: Reuters)
Riots are so rife among football matches around the world that it has to get to this level to even make international news.
Mohammed Abu Trika, a player with Al-Ahly, said police officers at the game stood by and did not intervene in the violence.
“People here are dying and no one is doing a thing. It’s like a war,” he said.
“Is life this cheap?”
Well Mohammed, in some countries, especially ones where people are conditioned to accept killing and maiming each other in recurring riots in their capital cities, sadly yes, life is this cheap.
As one of the peaceful majority who can manage to watch my team win or lose without murdering somebody afterwards, I find this whole football riot thing, well, quite a riot.
I’m not about to call it a tragedy when a pack of bloodthirsty mongrels who do consider life cheap, kill each other over a game. They should all collectively be awarded a Darwin Award for raising the quality of human beings left who actually have the temperament to watch sport without spontaneous acts of violence. I’m not buying the “crowd mentality” defence, either.
Truthfully, for millions of people, football is a religion. Rabidly violent soccer fans are no different in their extremist loyalty to the game as religious extremists are to their holy books. The violence is in their DNA.
Thank you, Egyptians, for ridding the world of a few more ultra-violent, rabid people. This is a bigger win for Al-Masry.
Related articles
- Scores killed in riot after Egypt soccer match (worldnews.msnbc.msn.com)
- Scores dead in soccer match riots (smh.com.au)
- Egypt Soccer Riot: 73 killed, Hundreds Injured in Stampede Following Al-Ahly vs Al-Masry Match [Video] (inquisitr.com)
- Rioting in Cairo
Thank you, Egyptians, for ridding the world of a few more ultra-violent, rabid people. This is a bigger win for Al-Masry.
You’ve got to be kidding me. You are no better than them.