What's next for Egyptian football

What's next for Egyptian football

Al Ahly is a football club that has long been famous as a focal point for patriotism and political discussion.

Right now it is a meeting point for grief.

Families of the dead gather for shared comfort at the team's Cairo social club. Former and current players offer what support they can. Hundreds line up to sign a book of condolence. The future is something this club are struggling to contemplate. Remembering the fans who didn't return home from that fateful game in Al Masry is their only focus for now.

In Al Masry's hometown of Port Said, pitches stand empty. All local leagues have been suspended as a mark of respect. 

Here the local supporters talk of being unfairly vilifiied, that the disaster was the consequence of a police plot. Some tell us they are now afraid to drive out of the city. Anyone with a Port Said number plate on their car is liable to be attacked, they say.

Mohamed Mahfouz , a former Al Masry player, was in tears when we met him the day after the disaster.

"We are more than sad, more than sad.. Those that died, they are our sons, all our sons. They are Egyptians. We hear what people are saying, but the people of Port Said could not do this." 

At the centre of all this is the game loved by Egyptians above all others. At some point the next step for football in this country will have to be considered. At the moment it is looking bleak.

The domestic premier league has been indefinitely suspended and the government has dissolved the Egyptian Football Association. That action could impact on the national team.

Government intervention in a sporting body is outlawed by FIFA, the sport's world governing body, FIFA. It means Egypt face the possibility of an international ban. 

Sitting in the manager's office of his Port Said textile firm, Hossam Omar says not to restart the league this season would be a big mistake.

Until last Wednesday night, Hossam was an Al Masry club director as well as a businessman. But he, along with every other board member, resigned after hearing news of the deaths.

"Obviously we need to mourn and reflect but we also need to think. If we don't get going again, players will be free to walk out of their contracts and will move to other countries. It could set our game back five or six years. Maybe in a few weeks time the league can be played, but without supporters, behind closed doors."

Games in empty stadiums is one idea, but as yet there is no plan. The future is a foreign land when grief is so raw.

Everyone talks of the importance of the official investigation into the disaster, but they also talk of their scepticism about it. Many doubt the real truth will ever be revealed, and fear the current enmity between Al Masry and Al Ahly will intensify rather than heal.

The consequences of what happened in a few cursed minutes look likely to define Egyptian football for years to come.