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Attempts To Ban Egyptian Militant Soccer Fan Group Gather Momentum

March 21, 2015

An Egyptian prosecutor has set the stage for the banning of a group of hard-core, militant soccer fans by charging them with accepting money and explosives from the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to stage last month’s Cairo football riot in which 22 people were killed. The prosecutor, Hesham Barakat, said the brawl, which erupted when police forces opened fire with tear gas and birdshot to prevent members of the highly politicized, street battle-hardened Ultras White Knights (UWK), the support group of storied Al Zamalek SC, from forcing entry into a soccer match was staged to obstruct government efforts to attract massive foreign aid and investment. The match was the first Egyptian Premier League game after a partial lifting of a ban on spectators attending matches imposed in February 2012 when 74 supporters of Zamalek arch rival Al Ahli SC were killed in a politically loaded brawl in Port Said. Soccer fans have long been on the radar of the security forces because of their key role in the toppling in a popular revolt in 2011 of President Hosni Mubarak; their opposition to the subsequent military government that ruled Egypt for the…


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