Egyptian football teams to resume matches 3 yrs after riots

Rival Egyptian teams Al-Ahly and Al-Masry will clash today for the first time since a 2012 match that ended in deadly stadium riots leaving 72 people killed.
The match will be played behind closed doors and at a neutral venue in the Red Sea city of Gouna, far away from Port Said where the riots erupted after the match on February 1, 2012.
Seventy-two of Cairo-based Al-Ahly's hard core supporters, known as the Ultras, were killed in that post-match violence in Port Said, home city of the Al-Masry team.
Families of those killed in 2012 have called for Al-Ahly to boycott the match but the club's management decided to go ahead with it.

"The match will be played for the sake of Egyptian football and the rights of the martyrs will be respected," said Mahmoud Taher, chairman of Al-Ahly.
Relatives of those killed in the Port Said riots, however, are angry.

"I do not care whether they play the game or not... I have lost interest in football, now I only care about retribution for my son," Metwaly Abdel Aziz, father of one of the victims told AFP.
Today will also see a new hearing in the retrial of 73 defendants, including nine policemen, accused of killing the Al-Ahly supporters.
The riots, considered the deadliest in Egypt's sports history, were largely blamed on supporters of veteran leader Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in early 2011 after a popular uprising.

Since 2012, Egypt's premier league championship has been split into two groups to ensure the two teams never played against each other, except potentially in a final, although that didn't happen.
However, for the 2015 season the league has reverted to a single group, meaning the two teams must now face each other once again.