EGYPT - Al-Ahly technical coach Manuel José da Silva expressed his deep grief and sadness, and offered his condolences to the families of at least 75 Ahly fans who died in the tragedy in Egypt's coastal city of Port Said. "I have been asking myself time and again how this could have happened in a football match. Did these youths only die because they loved their team and followed it everywhere?" José asked Modern Koora TV channel, adding that he will never forget this incident. The Portuguese tactician expressed his shock at what happened in Port Said. "The Egyptian people are unique. They love each other, so I am really very heartbroken," he added. José explained that he and his foreign assistants will travel to Portugal for a holiday and will be back in Cairo on February 17th. "I don't know whether the players can overcome this disaster," he commented. The Egypt's Football Association (EFA) said it has indefinitely postponed all Premier League matches, while Ahly are suspending all sporting activities and have declared 40 days of mourning, starting on Friday. The club have further declared that the first week of every February will be known as ‘Ahly's Martyrs' Week'. The violence that erupted after the match was one of the deadliest incidents in the history of soccer worldwide. It saw thousands of supporters of Port Said team Al-Masry invade the pitch and attack fans of Cairo's Al-Ahly with bottles and rocks. The Portuguese coach said that he has spent eight years in Egypt and that he has never felt afraid, not even during the disastrous events that happened in Port Said. "In Port Said, many people not belonging to the Red Devils club helped the team escape from the pitch,” José stressed. Ahly president Hassan Hamdi has revealed that the club have established a bank account for donations for the martyrs, with the club having contributed LE1 million as a start. José himself has donated LE375,000 (around $62,000) to the fund, while the team players have asked the club board to donate a percentage of their annual income to the martyrs and those injured in Port Said. Egypt's coach to continue American Bob Bradley, the current coach of Egypt's national team, expressed his sadness over the violence in Port Said. "I am really sad about what happened. It was terrible," he said. Bradley, hired last September as the Pharaohs' coach, denied that he will resign after these events. "I'm not thinking about departing from Egypt. I have every confidence that the Egyptian people will get over this tragic awful incident," he stressed. February 1 suggested as Egypt's Sports Day Gamal Mohamed Ali, an ex-EFA member also expressed his deep grief at this tragedy. "It's dreadful to see something like this happen at a football match, and for so many young men to lose their lives," he pointed out, urging officials to change the country's Sports Day to February 1, in commemoration of the victims.
