yesterday and today in Egypt

Yesterday there was an ugly conclusion to a soccer match between Zamalek and a Tunisian club. A Zamalek goal was disallowed in stoppage time for offsides, and rightfully so.

A number of Egyptian hooligans stormed the field and attacked the Tunisian players and the Algerian referee.

Today, there were “apology” demonstrations by Egyptians in front of the Tunisian and Algerian Embassies. The demonstrators seem to have felt especially bad given their sense of gratitude toward the Tunisian Revolution for sparking their own.

At a party tonight, someone told me that 21 hooligans were detained by the military in the incident. Some people are blaming NDP thugs for staging the attack, but I (like everyone I know) tends to think this wasn’t political, it was just bad soccer fans. Egypt has plenty of those.