It has been a long year for Libya since the situation of the ousting of former president Muammar Gaddafi. But it is finally time that the conflict has somewhat settled and they can begin hosting international soccer events. That is exactly what happened yesterday when the country welcomed 31 time Bulgarian champion CSKA Sofia to play Al Ahli Tripoli, a Libyan national team. This was a great sign of things changing over there as they felt comfortable enough to welcome another country's soccer team in town and felt that they would be competing in a safe enough environment. They were successful in doing this as firstpost.com explains, they welcomed in roughly 1,000 fans to watch the match and instead of fighting there were only cheers of national pride and independence from the dictatorial reign of Gaddafi. Another positive to take from this was that Al Ahli Tripoli was able to beat the Bulgarian champions by a score of 1-0 which shows that they have not lost anything in their first home game in over a year. Bulgaria also played Al Nasar Benghazi and defeated them; then after that the two Libyan teams took on each other with Benghazi getting the win 1-0. Everyone felt more comfortable at yesterday's games including spectators like Saad Mohammed al-Breghathy who said "we feel more comfortable now. We watched football matches without interest during the revolution but it is different now and it feels great." I feel that this was a great sign for any country in the midst of a revolution that things can get better. This is not just about sports, it's about a country with the strength to overcome probably its darkest period ever and be able to carry on.

                                           

Libyan fans gathering outside Benina Martyrs stadium for the return of international soccer.
Compliments of Al Arabiya news.

Egyptian military stands Idlely by while spectators are killed

 

photo from new york times.

It was the greatest killing at a soccer game in 15 years according to the New York Times. The above picture, also from that same New York Times article illustrates just one of the 73 bodies killed in the riot at the Egyptian soccer stadium. In every article I read it seems as if the author is writing the story under the angle that the police were in the wrong in the situation. Both the article in the New York Times and one I found in Sports Illustrated said that the military was just lashing out at the protesters of the Al-Ahly who vowed vengeance against the police. Not only did the police not do anything but they went as far as locking the gates of the stadium so that the "Ultras" as the Al-Ahly were referred too could not escape the attacks of the Al-Masry. It feel like the two medias are taking the right angle in this instance because I feel that the Egyptian military and police are being stubborn. As it says in the article the reason for the actions of the police was because they had been highly questioned by the Al-Ahly about failing to prevent real change after the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak.With the police acting the way that they did and not letting fans escape or protecting them in general further proves the authors point of the military reacting cowardly. I also think that from what the authors of both articles have said about the military, they are in no way fit to protect a nation especially due to the fact that they do not care about the people in general. It is clear to me that this is a nation going through an unwanted transition by certain members of the military and that they are putting innocent civilians at risk. There was a quote in an article on cnn that said how awful the newly elected parliament felt about the tragedy and that Egypt will be a peaceful nation from this point forward. But I feel that if they truly meant that they would have prevented this tragedy from ever taking place by making sure they had credible security for the soccer game. What it says to me is that Egypt is a nation that will have a hard time protecting the country as a whole if they cannot protect their people from fighting each other.
~Max Householder


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