The recent violent and sabotaging events that took place inside Ahli and Zamalek Sports Clubs premises last week have revealed yet another ugly face of the ultra behaviour adopted by some who call themselves the most loyal football fans in Egypt. Without going into details of what could have been the motive behind their act (because no reason whatsoever is justifiable enough for fans to sabotage their rivals' clubs), the entering and crashing incident carried out by both Zamalek and Ahli fans is an absolute shame which tarnishes the face of Egyptian sports in general and football in particular. Even at the height of their absolute notoriety in the eighties and early nineties, hooligans' firms in Britain (pioneers of football violence) have never crashed into their rival clubs' training grounds for instance. Witnessing recurrent clashes between Ultras Ahlawy members whenever their club travels to Ismailia or vice versa, similar troubles ahead of Cairo derby games and then last week's incidents all imply that we are on the verge of sports hooliganism at its best. While most Egyptians were impressed by their colourful tifos, creative chants and match-long support for their teams, it was clear from the early beginnings that the Egyptian ultras movement was doomed to turn from its torcida-like foundation into fan clubs with a slightly racial, violent and hatred inciting ideology. The reason for such belief was that and with all due respect to their members, ultras members got too pigheaded few years after their new face of supporting caught the media lights. I wouldn't even dare to deny them their role in helping Egyptian clubs and national teams win many crucial encounters and titles, but after a while they started showing some racism/arrogance. The bigger problem is that they don't know what racism or arrogance is and how dangerous such negative principles can have on our sporting community.
The bigger problem is that they don't know what racism or arrogance is and how dangerous such negative principles can have on our sporting community It started when Ultras Ahlawy fans demonstrated that massive banner saying 'we are Egypt'. What sort of provoking support was that and what exactly did they mean by raising it? Do they believe that one has to be an Ahli faithful in order to be a real Egyptian and who are they to judge the national loyalty of anyone let alone strict it to themselves? I still recall a conversation with a devout ultras member, who was enthusiastically telling me that before the ultras, there was no real support in our stadiums. The twenty something year old fellow decided that he can simply demolish over 70 years of football support in Egypt only because he can launch illegal fireworks without being caught by stadium security. The naïve England banner held by Ahli fans in the 3-3 derby last season, ridiculously hinting that because arch rivals Zamalek was established as a club for British colonial officials more than 80 years ago, this should allow them to taunt the White Knights' fans as traitors? Egypt is not experiencing any political conflicts with England as far as I know and many football observers did not get the funny side of such a banner. Another sign of arrogance from the Ultras' side was when they abandoned Ahli's game against Wadi Degla at the interval as a sign of condemning the club board's silence over the detention of ultra fans following Ahli's CAF Champions League defeat to Ismaili. Since when has the Ahli board become the official solicitors and sponsors for the ultras? If the club have ever indirectly sponsored the ultras then this will be a bigger problem. However, leaving a league game where your club is tied 0-0 at home to a newly-promoted side totally contradicts with the ultras' everlasting boast of unconditional love to their clubs. This is not the first time Ultras Ahlawy desert their team because of security problems. The first time it worked well when star players like Mohamed Barakat came out begging the ultras to return to the stands and now it seems that Ultras Ahlawy are abusing Ahli's board. Not my idea of unconditional support. The bottom line is that Ultras groups across Egypt are becoming repulsive, irresponsible, arrogant and violent. Something needs to be done before they take their exaggerated enthusiasm and we end up watching our fans getting severely injured or God forbid dying in the stands or inside their clubs as a result of incidents like last week's.
