The final whistle blew. Al Masry had defeated the visiting giants, Al Ahly, 3–1. What followed was not a pitch invasion of celebration, but a coordinated attack. Al Masry supporters surged across the barriers. They carried knives, clubs, and stones. They cornered Al Ahly fans in a narrow stadium tunnel. Police, present in significant numbers, largely stood aside. Some reports indicate gates were locked. The violence was methodical. Seventy-four people were killed. Over five hundred were injured. Many were crushed or suffocated. Others were stabbed.
The event was not spontaneous fan violence. It was a political act. The Al Ahly ultras, known as the Ahlawy, had been prominent participants in the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak the previous year. They were antagonists to the ruling military council. The massacre in Port Said was widely interpreted as punishment, a message delivered through the channel of a sporting rivalry. The state’s inaction was the statement. The numbers—74 dead, 500 injured—are abstractions. The meaning was concrete: in the new Egypt, the terraces were another battlefield, and the price of dissent could be a ticket to a football match.