Authorities accuse supporters, but fans claim the opposite in Egypt’s latest outbreak of social unrest after 19 young people were killed before a football game. League is again suspended.

Before Sunday’s derby of Cairo between Zamalek and ENPPI catastrophe unveiled outside Air Defense Stadium. At least 19 people died (previously Al Ahram confirmed 30 deaths) and cause of death for nearly half of them was confirmed to be asphyxia. Fans suffocated in the dense crowd.

Details remain unclear, but what we can confirm most certainly at this point is that there were no riots to start the tragedy as some media claim. Fights broke out only after the tragic events in reaction to what some fans call predictable and preventable disaster.

Zamalek accuses its own fans of not having tickets and trying to force entry. Photographs suggest the number of people attempting to get inside may have indeed exceeded the number of tickets significantly. However, many Zamalek supporters claim it was a provocation from the club, with whom they’re not in good relations.

Zamalek reportedly released only half of the 10,000 tickets for public sale, far too few to match demand. To add to that, the club only prepared one single entrance for the 5,000 ticket holders. That’s several times below optimum of 500+ people per turnstile.

To add to that, there was actually no turnstile in Cairo yesterday. Instead, there was a bottleneck with barbed wire into which fans were being pushed, very much like farm animals. And that’s how Ultras White Knights refer to the structure – a cage.

The temporary entrance eventually gave way and collapsed under the pushing crowd. Police officers were reported to fire tear gas, causing panic and stampede on the site.  

UWK released a list of 22 “martyrs” of what they describe as an orchestrated massacre by the law enforcement. The government sees it completely differently: warrants for the arrest of Ultras White Knights’ leaders were issued.

Ironically the game went ahead and was played to the outrage of many fans still inside the stadium. One player refused to play. Omar Gaber believed deaths were too much to go on with the game and for this he has been suspended indefinitely. The game ended 1:1.

Football in Egypt was slowly getting back to normal before yesterday’s disaster as fans were being allowed inside for after a long nationwide ban. The league is now suspended just like it was in 2012, when 74 supporters of another Cairo team, Al Ahli, were slaughtered in Port Said.