[6] Two days before the match, the Al Masry ultra group Ultras Green Eagles uploaded a song on their YouTube channel inspired by a 1956 rebel song by Port Said residents threatening the lives of Al Ahly fans, echoing threats issued to British soldiers during the 1956 Suez Crisis soon before the Moorhouse Affair.
During half-time and after each of the three second-half goals for Al-Masry, the club's supporters stormed the pitch,[8] and after the match, thousands of spectators ran onto the playing field.
[11] Hisham Sheha, an official in the Egyptian health ministry, said stab wounds, brain hemorrhages, and concussions caused the deaths.
[2] Ahly coach Manuel José was kicked and punched by Masry fans while attempting to return to his locker room.
[17] The bureau chief of the Voice of America in Egypt received reports that police opened the barriers separating the Al-Ahly and Al-Masry supporters.
[18] The New York Times reported that a significant factor in the riots was retaliation on the part of the authorities towards the Ultras Ahlawy, who were actively involved in Tahrir Square during the 2011 Egyptian revolution protests and Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) chair Mohamed Hussein Tantawi's rule, as they kept chanting anti-government revolutionary chants in almost all Ahly games in the Egyptian Premier League.
[citation needed] The BBC reported the Egyptian deputy health minister described it as "the biggest disaster in the country's football history".
[19] FIFA President Sepp Blatter issued a statement that read: I am very shocked and saddened to learn this evening that a large number of Football supporters have died or been injured following a match in Port Said, Egypt.
[24] They added that there were numerous factors suggesting that it was planned, including the lack of searching and ticket inspection outside the stadium, the floodlights switching off, the welding shut of the away stand's gate, and the arrival of thugs from outside.
It was directed at a group known for manifesting a liberal political agenda through support for a team founded in the name of historically disenfranchised workers and students.
And it occurred at a moment when the interim military government has urged the citizenry to support the extension of emergency powers, and with the seeming complicity of law enforcement and stadium security.
[18]After Italian club Fiorentina loaned Mohamed Salah back in 2015, his kit number was 74 in remembrance of 74 people who died in this riot.
Following the incident, anti-government political activists accused the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)[11] and remnants of the old regime still in positions of power, asserting that the events were of a "counter-revolutionary" nature.
Activists cited a rise in crime levels in the week leading up to the event as evidence that the violence had been organized (in Cairo and Helwan: two bank robberies and the heist of an armored vehicle transporting money.
[29] The violence in Port Said took place on the eve of the first anniversary of what later became known as "the battle of the camel",[30] when armed thugs stormed protesters in Tahrir Square on camel-back.
[31] People who attended the game stated that, in contrast with standard procedures, no security searches were conducted at the stadium entrances, allowing makeshift weapons to be smuggled in.
On 26 January 2013, Port Said Criminal Court, convening at the Police Academy in New Cairo for security reasons, issued preliminary death sentences to 21 defendants.
There was an outburst of emotion from the defendants' families when the judge announced the preliminary death sentences, requiring him to ask for order in the court several times.
[33] The Ahly ultras celebrated the verdict by carrying out demonstrations praising the sentence in front of their club branch in Zamalek and demanding the conviction of officers who were involved in the disaster.
[34] They then moved their demonstration to the Ministry of Interior headquarters to assert their demands of prosecuting the officers, resulting in clashes with the police who shot tear gas to disperse the protestors.