The Interior Ministry has beefed up its security measures ahead of a much-anticipated, decisive football premier league encounter between arch rivals Ahly and Zamalek on Tuesday evening.
The Interior Ministry’s department in Alexandria has announced the deployment of 5,000 soldiers from Central Security Forces and armoured vehicles to secure the match hosted by the Borg Al-Arab Stadium, at the province’s remote western region.
Alexandria security chief Mohamed al-Sharqawy made a field visit to the stadium on Monday to follow up the security preparations, which included the installation of checkpoints as far as two kilometers from the stadium.
Bomb squads combed the stadium’s vicinity.
The Ministry warned the two teams’ hardcore fan groups, known as the Ultras Ahlawy and Ultras White Knights, of any attempts to violate its decision to hold the competition’s matches without spectators. The warning came as Ahly fans asked through social media to allow them to attend the game.
Tensions were already high between the two teams as Ahly had objected to holding the game at al-Gouna Stadium in Hurghada citing high temperatures, which sparked a verbal altercation between by Zamalek’s chief Mortada Mansour and Ahly’s Mahmoud Taher.The spat, which saw Ahly threatening to quit the game, was resolved with Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb’s intervention to assign the Alexandria pitch.
Zamalek is topping the league’s chart with 83 points, and needs only one point from today’s match to end an eleven-year league title drought and raise the club’s total to 12 titles.
Ahly won the title 37 times, the last being in 2014.
Egypt’s local football league, besides halting due to two popular uprisings in 2011 and 2013, has seen several incidents of violence between fans and security, which prompted authorities to deny spectators entry to stadiums indefinitely.
The worst catastrophe occurred in February 2012 when 72 fans of Al-Ahly Sports Club were killed by angry rivals at Port Said Stadium during the team’s premier league encounter with its host, Al-Masry.
The current edition was also halted briefly after 22 Zamalek fans died in a stampede outside a Cairo military stadium in February that coincided with the firing of tear gas by police.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
