Interior Ministry rejects blame for stadium deaths, Cabinet suspends league

Security forces are not responsible for the deaths of 22 people in clashes at the Air Force Stadium on Sunday night, Interior Ministry spokesperson Hany Abdel Latif declared.

While he acknowledged that there were “shortcomings” in how the incident was dealt with, all involved parties were implicated, not just security personnel, he said in a phone-in with the privately owned CBC satellite channel.

On Sunday night, at least 22 people were killed and many were injured in clashes between Zamalek’s hardcore football fans, the Ultras White Knights, and police forces at the Air Force Stadium in New Cairo.

Unnamed security sources told the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram that 17 people were arrested in the clashes.

State media reported that a number of fans lay in front of the bus transporting Zamalek football players to the stadium. Police then fired tear gas at the crowd, triggering a stampede as the fans tried to escape. The Ultras White Knights Facebook page said that some of the victims died of suffocation.

Abdel Latif asserted that the Interior Ministry was against allowing fans to attend football games to begin with, but yielded to pressure from the media and sports organizations.

Spectators had been banned from attending football matches after the 2012 Port Said tragedy that left more than 70 fans dead. The decision was reversed in January.

In another phone interview with the privately owned channel ONtv, Abdel Latif said that the events were a “deliberate” attempt to create a crisis.

Groups in the crowd urged fans to force their way through the gates and climb the fence to get into the stadium when they were denied entrance to the match, he claimed.

Abdel Latif again acknowledged “mistakes” committed by security forces, but said that other parties were responsible for the violence.

He called on all relevant entities to band together to confront the violence that ensues at football games by enforcing laws.

“We shouldn’t only rely on the police. This police culture needs to end,” Abdel Latif insisted.

Zamalek Club chairperson Mortada Mansour also exonerated the police from the deaths, saying the clashes were “premeditated.”

Mansour claimed the perpetrators planned the violence in order to scare the Egyptian people in the lead-up to the parliamentary elections. He made the comments in a phone interview on the privately owned Dream satellite channel’s “Al-Ashera Masa’an” talk show.

Pursuant to Sunday’s tragedy, the Cabinet ruled to suspend the football league until further notice.

In a statement on Monday, the Cabinet said that after stadium doors were closed, crowds started attempting to force their way into the match and refused to be searched. They then assaulted security forces and attacked private and public property. The victims died in the pushing and shoving during the ensuing stampede, the statement reiterated.

The Cabinet also expressed condolences to the victims’ families.

The Egyptian Football Association announced a three-day mourning period for the victims, and decided to suspend any activities until further notice.

Correction: An earlier version of the story put the death toll at 25. This was corrected on February 9 to reflect a more accurate figure.