Egypt soccer board resign over fatal riots
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E-mail China Daily, February 7, 2012
The president of Egypt's soccer federation and his board of directors resigned Saturday, having already been sacked by the country's prime minister following the riot at a game that left more than 70 dead.
Egyptian Football Association president Samir Zaher also was reportedly banned from leaving Egypt pending an investigation into the country's worst outburst of soccer violence.
Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri announced the decision during Thursday's emergency parliamentary session, a day after a match between Cairo giants Al-Ahly and host city's Al-Masry soccer teams in the Mediterranean city of Port Said turned deadly.
El-Ganzouri also says the governor of Port Said province and the area's police chief have resigned.
Witnesses had said that riot police stood by as supporters of home team Al-Masry rushed the field after their 3-1 win over Al-Ahly.
The incident, the highest number of victims in Egypt since last year, was the worst soccer disaster in the country and most of the deaths were among people trampled in the crush of the panicking crowd.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, FIFA, soccer's world governing body, has demanded a full report into the violence amid claims that security forces and police did not do enough to intervene.
FIFA to reinstate EFA officials
FIFA chief Sepp Blatter said on Sunday they will take steps to reinstate Egypt's Football Association (EFA).
Blatter, attending an extraordinary congress of the South American Football Confederation at its Paraguay headquarters, said the EFA's suspension after Wednesday's violence was a direct intervention into soccer affairs which FIFA could not accept.
"The information we have received at FIFA confirms the number of dead as 74. It was also confirmed that the (Egyptian) government intervened directly by suspending the (country's) soccer association," Blatter told a news conference.
"We are going to take up the case from tomorrow (Monday) so that this association is reinstated because it is the (body) that has the responsibility to organize the competitions and it must carry on (its work)," the president of world soccer's governing body said.
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