The Ahly Sports Club sent a request to the Interior Ministry on Tuesday to allow its fans to attend the football game against South Africa’s Orlando Pirates on Saturday, during the second leg of the African Confederation Club's semi-finals.
“In the new letter, we have proposed to security authorities all solutions possible to allow the fans to attend, especially considering the game is critical for the team to defend its African title,” the club’s general director, Mahmoud Allam, told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
“We left it up to the Interior Ministry to decide on the suitable number of fans,” Allam said, referring to the ministry’s announcement on Monday that stated fans would not be allowed to attend the championship’s semi-final.
Ahly lost to Orlando by one goal during their encounter in Nelspruit, South Africa last Saturday.
In the other semi-final game, Ahly’s arch rival, Zamalek, lost 1-5 to Tunisia’s Etoile Sportive du Sahel.
Egypt’s local football league, apart from being temporarily suspended due to two popular uprisings in 2011 and 2013, has seen several incidents of violence between fans and security, prompting authorities to indefinitely deny spectators entry to stadiums.
The worst catastrophe occurred in February 2012 when 72 fans from the Ahly Sports Club were killed by angry rivals in the Port Said Stadium during the team’s premier league encounter with its host, Al-Masry.
The latest incident, which occured outside a Cairo military stadium in February of this year, resulted in the death of 22 Zamalek fans after a stampede broke out while police fired tear gas at the fans
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
