The incident comes on the heels of a more serious rock-throwing affair, in a league football game, in which the referee was forced to call the match off at the half after leaving the field with a bloodied head, the result of a stone let loose from the crowds sitting in the bleachers. And last Saturday, Alexandria basketball fans ran riot in Cairo's indoor hall after a series of officiating calls went against their team. They uprooted dozens of the arena's plastic seats, hurling them onto the court. Police in full riot gear had to be called in but failed to stem the violence which forced the cancellation of the game with over four minutes left. All these incidents were not free of the ubiquitous swear words and curses that rang out and were heard on air by millions of viewers.
Hooliganism is a relatively new phenomenon in Egypt.
There have, of course, been ugly incidents before. The football league of 1971 was cut short after fans ran amuck on the streets, burning parked cars and laying waste to streets and roads adjacent to Cairo Stadium following the famed derby between Ahli and Zamalek. Later that same decade, the league was again stopped prematurely after a stone flattened a Mehalla footballer. Perhaps the most infamous incident involved a 1993 World Cup qualifier that had to be replayed, with disastrous consequences for Egypt. Egypt had beaten Zimbabwe in Cairo and was on its way to the last qualifying stage.