A riot following a soccer match in Egypt resulted in over 70 deaths and thousands injured. The reason for the riot will probably seem strange to most American fans: their team won.
Fan is a slang term coined in America in the 1880s, shortened from the word fanatic, which means a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal.
In the US, riots following a sporting match or game are rare but generally happen when a team loses or fans feel that there were bad calls by the officials.
In Egypt, fans of the home team, Al-Masry, rioted following their team’s unexpected 3-1 win over the top team in Egypt, Al-Ahly.
The match was played in the city of Port Said and is one of the worst episodes of sports violence in Egyptian history.
It was reported on www.msnbc.com that most of the deaths were the result of severe head injuries or suffocation.
Shortly after the end of the match in Port Said, another scheduled soccer match in Cairo was postponed due to the deaths. This move caused more violence, with fans setting Cairo Stadium on fire.
Egypt’s Football Association will decide whether to cancel the rest of the season.
Although most fans don’t behave so radically, there have been other violent incidents in the past both in America and abroad.
The ODAC Conference, of which Lynchburg College, Randolph College, and Sweet Briar College are members, has specific rules regarding spectator conduct.
The next time you attend a highly contested sporting event, imagine for a minute fans so fanatical that they stampede the field, crushing lives out under their feet.
Hopefully violence such as this will not be seen again anywhere.