Egypt’s
military rulers are employing a security-inspired sustained ban on
professional soccer as a tool to undermine radical, highly-politicized
and street battle-hardened soccer fans who have emerged as the North
African country’s most militant opponents of the armed force’s grip on
politics.
The military’s effort to sideline soccer as a
national past time is in stark contrast to ousted President Hosni
Mubarak’s use of the game to enhance his image and distract public
attention from politics. If soccer overshadowed politics under Mr.
Mubarak, politics dwarfs soccer under his successors.
So
far the military supported by the interior ministry appears to be
succeeding in its goal of isolating militant soccer fan groups. It is
however a strategy that could backfire. For one, public focus on
politics means closer scrutiny of public officials and enhanced pressure
on both the military and Egypt’s newly elected president, Muslim
Brother Mohammed Morsi, to perform in terms of rebuilding Egypt’s
economy and moving the country further down the road towards democracy.
The
military, the interior ministry, soccer officials and militant soccer
fans have in recent days been locked into a complex dance focused on the
authorities’ refusal to lift a five month ban on professional soccer
and the aftermath of the death of 74 fans in February in a politically
loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said. It is a dance that in
coming days could erupt into renewed street violence in what the
security forces would hope is the final showdown and militants would
seek to turn into a second revolution that forces the soldiers to return
to their barracks.
The hardening of positions on both
sides of the divide comes as Mr. Morsi despite having won Egypt’s first
post-Mubarak presidential election with 52 per cent of the vote finds
himself between a rock and a hard place. Egypt's military, which
succeeded Mr. Mubarak with a mandate to guide the country towards free
and fair elections effectively pre-empted the Brotherhood victory by
giving itself broad legislative and executive authority on the eve of
the election. The move has left Mr. Mors primarily dependent on public
support in his tug of war with the military.
The
interior ministry’s refusal to lift the ban on soccer imposed in the
wake of the Port Said incident as long as enhanced security, including
electronic gates, airport-style scanners and security cameras have not
been installed in Egyptian stadiums is not unreasonable.
Yet,
it ignores the fact that security forces stood aside during the brawl
in Port Said in what was widely believed to be an effort that got out of
hand to teach a lesson to the militant soccer fans for their continued
opposition to the military. It also fails to take account of the fact
that the military has refrained from reforming the interior ministry and
its security forces who are Egypt’s most distrusted institutions
because of their role as enforcers of the repressive Mubarak regime.
The
military’s exploitation of increased post-Mubarak public focus on
politics at the expense of soccer is aided by the poor performance of
Egypt’s national team in recent African tournaments. Egypt last month
failed to qualify for the Africa Cup finals in a crucial match against
the Central African Republic just as Mr. Morsi was being sworn in as his
country’s first democratically elected leader.
Media
focus on Mr. Morsi rather than the soccer match was in stark contrast to
an incident in 2006 when the Mubarak regime successfully focused the
media on Egyptian soccer rather than on the sinking of a ferry in which
1,100 people died. Public sentiment at the time blamed government
corruption for their deaths.
“The balance is being reset,” Egypt Independent quoted American University of Cairo political scientist Emad Shahin as saying.
In
fact, the role of militant soccer fans in the overthrow of Mr. Mubarak
and the vicious street battles with security forces in which hundreds
were killed and thousands wounded since his downfall that culminated in
the Port Said incident have transformed soccer from a debate about
sports to one about politics.
That was reinforced by
the government’s firing of the Mubarak era board of the Egyptian
Football Association (EFA) in the wake of Port Said. Three competing
lists – members of the Mubarak-era board, Islamist players and
independent reformers – are campaigning for the EFA’s elections
scheduled for late August.
“This was the first time in
the history of Egyptian football that victims have fallen after a
football match. This match has fanned the flames of conflict between
revolutionaries and the SCAF,” the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces, said Ayman Abou Ayed, head of state-owned Al Ahram newspaper’s
sports department.
Public empathy for the militant
soccer fans was already diminishing by the time Port Said happened. Many
Egyptians have become protest weary and yearn for stability that would
allow their country to return to a path of economic growth. Mr. Ayed
argues that the violence coupled with the suspension of the premier
league and the banning of spectators from international matches reduced
public interest in what had been a national passion.
The
hardening of positions and the potential for renewed violence became
evident earlier this week when a group of militant supporters of crowned
Cairo club Al Ahly SC whose members died in the Port Said incident were
attacked by unidentified men armed with shotguns, glass shards and
rocks as they marched from their club’s headquarters to the Journalists’
Syndicate.
Militant supporters of Al Ahly arch rival
Al Zamalek said days before the attack that they had suggested ways to
reduce violence in the stadiums but had received no response from the
authorities. In a statement, the militants warned that their approach
towards upcoming matches would be determined by how the interior
ministry justified its continued ban on spectators attending games.
Zamalek and Al Ahly, whose derbies prior to Mr. Mubarak’s downfall were
ranked among the world’s most violent, are scheduled to clash on Sunday
in Cairo in an African club championship match.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and author of the blog,
The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
