At the start of the documentary ‘Egypt, Football and Violence’, the soothing voice of Hazem al Mestikawy over the emotive montage of thousands of fans marching down the streets of Cairo captures the Orwellian world of Egyptian football. “The people in Egypt come out on the streets in millions and celebrate just for two reasons: A huge political change…,” Al Mestikawy, an Egyptian pundit, says before taking a dramatic pause to add, “…or because of football.”
Seven years ago, Egypt’s two biggest obsessions crossed paths in a way not many envisaged. The fans of Al Ahly, a century-old club steeped in nationalist history and a symbol of anti-British struggle, signed a truce with arch rivals Zamalek, seen as the sporting wing of the British army and the ruling elite. The two biggest clubs, at each other’s throats for decades, have often clashed in the often-acrimonious Cairo Derby, spilling blood in the stands.
On January 25, 2011, though, everything changed: Ultras of both clubs, the hardcore, often-violent fans, emptied out of the stands and into the streets to join Egypt’s biggest footballers with a revolutionary zeal to end president Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
Egyptian football is a heady mix of politics and violence. But that night at Tahrir Square transformed the landscape of sport in the North African nation for ever. In the next few years, hundreds of supporters died in multiple in-stadia violence, the league was suspended more than once, and Egypt’s most famous player, Mohamed Aboutrika, labelled a ‘terrorist’. The national team, once the most dominant force in Africa, could not qualify for the continental championship for three editions following the revolution.