Red card for the ultras

FOOTBALL, like politics, arouses strong passions in Egypt. Bring the two together and you get a combustible mixture. Add police brutality and you get the explosive atmosphere of Egypt’s football league.

Rivalries between opposing clubs are heated. The league was cancelled in 2012 after a brawl at a match in Port Said left 74 dead. (Play was suspended the next year, too.) But the animosity between Egypt’s hard-core fans, known as “ultras”, and the authorities—who share blame for the Port Said violence—is even fiercer. Matches are now played behind closed doors, without fans, to avoid incidents. On May 16th a court in Cairo tried to stamp out any remaining embers by banning ultra groups.