Soccer's Secret Revolutionary

in-depth football coverage from the athletic is now just one pound per week see the link in the description to sign up today on february the 26th 2020 red star belgrade played in gea in a serbian super leaguer match despite a daytime midweek kickoff their ultras the delia took a few thousand to the game the group is respected and feared among european ultras for its organization anti-establishment ethos fierce ultra-nationalism and elaborate choreographies and so with 36 minutes on the clock the delia chanted and raised a banner amrathami rest in peace [Music] umi had been the secretary secretary-general of the confederation of african football he was egyptian he supported al-ahli egypt and africa's most decorated club and he'd held one of the most powerful jobs in world football a week before he had died of complications following a brain tumor he was 36 years old now on the face of it farming would seem like an unlikely figure for the delia to eulogize it will also most likely be the only time the group fly a banner that honours a muslim who was part of football's establishment although amira farmi wasn't part of the establishment not really 15 years earlier he'd founded egypt's first ever ultra group ultra zakhlawi it grew from a few hundred to tens of thousands of people gaining worldwide respect in the global ultra community for their songs choreography and dedication they made connections with groups all around the world including the delia a group notoriously difficult to impress but more importantly the ultra zakhawi he founded would play a role in bringing down a dictator during the egyptian revolution inspiring thousands in a campaign for justice for fallen comrades all the while he stayed incognito for fear of being arrested or worse and for an encore he later rose to one of the top positions in kaf and exposed the corruption he saw an act that cost him his job but eventually led to fifa reprimanding one of its most powerful thickers amber farmi was much more than an ultra or a fan or a bureaucrat he was a secret revolutionary [Music] back in 2007 egyptian football was passionately supported but disorganized and ripe for change farmi came from a wealthy kyrene family and was obsessed with football he studied in milan and on the fifa international master in management law and humanities of sport at leicester de montfort university but it was milan that left the biggest mark the italian city is the birthplace of ultra culture and it was here that he became infatuated with the italian style of support with the choreography songs and pyrotechnics he wanted to bring back what he'd seen and heard in milan to cairo and to his own team a lovely by day he worked in kaf's cairo office learning the ropes but by night he began organizing egypt's first ultra group the ultrasachawi in the spring of 2007 during the cairo derby against their hated city rival zamelek ultras are chloe numbering just a few hundred unfurled their first choreography an image of a red devil representing ashley a birthday cake and a 1-6 to honor the anniversary of our luckily humiliating zamalek by that score in 2002. outside the ground he was a polite bookish young student from a good family but once the game began he transformed into a powerful infectious presence he had the ability to connect with people of different backgrounds religions and classes something quite rare in egypt and brought a fierce intelligence wit charisma and most importantly pathos to the curve farmi was a natural leader and people began to follow now at the time egypt was in a desperate state the economy was in a mess the country's longtime autocrat hosni mubarak had managed to crush all opposition from political and religious activists there was little freedom and football fans ultras were seen as little more than hooligans and certainly weren't presumed to pose a political threat but their numbers grew a few hundred ultras of chloe became tens of thousands standing in the north stand of the cairo international stadium farmi had gathered a cross-section of cairo's young rich and poor male and female secular and religious christian and muslim and farming would always be at the front leading the songs and chants he helped to write he would negotiate with the club and pay for tickets for younger fans out of his own pocket as well as help for travel on away days tunisia or catablanca in the african champions league alexandria or portsayed in the league making sure the poorest of the ultras of hilari could always be there now whilst athlean zamalek had a fierce rivalry increasingly the real enemy was the authorities ultras globally share a worldview that sees them fight authority and depression the ultras of chloe and other groups like xamalex ultra's white knights faced the injustices of mubarak's hated police force on a weekly basis enduring beatings and humiliation anti-government and anti-police messages like acab or cops or bastards began to appear on banners at games they became hardened and learned how to fight back how to avoid arrest and how to deal with police baton charges or to counteract the effects of tear gas the whole concept of any independent organization didn't exist not unions not political parties nothing was organized and then we started to organize ultras it was just sport then but to them it was youth in big numbers very smart people who could mobilize quickly they feared us and the more they tried to put pressure on us the more we grew in cult status the ultras taught us to speak our minds and the skills he learned in opposing mubarak's police would come in handy when revolution came to the middle east many point to the self-immolation of muhammad boazizi as the spark which lit the fuse of the arab spring boaz easy was a poor vegetable seller from tunisia who set himself on fire in december 2010 when the authorities confiscated his street stall but in egypt there had long been disenchantment with the police five months before boise's death young people had protested the killing of a young man called khalid saeed police said that he had died choking on a block of hashish that he'd tried to swallow whilst being searched but when pictures of his brutally beaten body emerged it was clear that he had died violently at the hands of the police sparking anger on social media and then on the streets for many young egyptians his death became the symbol of police impunity agitation grew and a huge protest was arranged for january the 25th 2011 to mark national police day cairo's ultras initially decided to go individually rather than under their group's banners but once in taqueria square they coalesced dropping their inter-club rivalry and when the police moved in there was only one group that had any frontline experience over the following days battles raged in the square but mubarak was toppled and his police were bested in the heady days of freedom that followed on takaris square the ultra zachary's pyro and banners became an integral part of the revolution's aesthetic the most important though were the songs that had been crafted by the ultras of chloe in the north stand of the cairo international stadium they say violence is in our blood how dare we fight for our rights stupid regime hear what we say freedom freedom freedom family had once sold the ultrasaflawi songs on cds out of the trunk of his car outside the cairo international stadium with the money being sent to a children's hospital but now they had become the soundtrack of the revolution the football continued in post-revolutionary egypt with the ultras in charge it was flawed but it was free initially the ultras were seen as hooligans but as time passed their role in the revolution was recognized but farmi's identity remained a closely guarded secret and not just because of the anonymity and secrecy of ultraculture no faith no name nor because he was working in an administrative role for kaf but because he would almost certainly have faced a rest or worse in an egyptian jail when ukraine played farmy could be seen at the front wearing his usual disguise a football casual style bucket hat and sunglasses in the rare occasions he spoke to anyone from the media he would go by the nomdaga assad but the moment where it all went wrong was the opening salvo of egypt's counter-revolution on february the 1st 2012 72 aalhi fans were killed after a game against el masri in portsaid the lights of the stadium were turned off shortly before a mob attacked the ultra zachlawi fans most were crushed to death in a tunnel as they tried to escape and others died in the away team's dressing room with a luckily players one fan died in the arms of mohammed abu trika considered to be egypt's greatest ever player prosecutors would later accuse security officials and police officers from the city who had been seen as the ugly face of mubarak's regime of being complicit alongside al-masri's ultras in the deaths in the weeks afterwards farmi would be at the front of the daily marches demanding justice he would visit the parents of the dead carrying guilt as the ultra zakhlawi was his idea and fearing that they would blame the group for the killings but that never happened they told us that they were proud their sons were loved by so many people said farmy they all told us one thing get justice which is what the ultras are chloe did they essentially blockaded the league for one year until justice was served jft 74 graffiti could be seen all over cairo justice for the 74 was based on liverpool's justice for the 96 campaign for those killed at hillsborough the 74 referred to the 72 who died at port saeed plus two ultras of chloe who died during the revolution itself and every time the egyptian fa tried to restart the league the ultra zakhlawi was there to shut down the game eventually nearly a year later they got a semblance of justice 73 people were charged with a range of offences connected to the deaths including the head of security for port saeed who was initially sentenced to 13 years in prison later reduced to five 21 al-masri fans were later sentenced to death although the number of people punished for what happened at port saeed would be whittled down over the following years at this point it was close to the end of egypt's revolution mohamed morsi the country's first freely elected president was removed in a military coup replaced by the former director of military intelligence abdel fattah el-sisi once heroes the ultras were now seen as enemies of the state in may 2015 cairo's court of urgent matters passed the law banning them after a private prosecution was brought by mortada mansour the chairman of zamolek and a staunch ally of hosni mubarak who had long hated ultras branding them as terrorists hundreds of ultras ended up in jail a video was released in 2018 purportedly made by the ultras of chloe burning their main banner a sign that the group had disbanded and their facebook account was deleted too but it's unclear whether this was done under pressure by the authorities but no one gave amrathami up as the ultras melted back into their lives farmi embarked on an extraordinary final chapter of his life he was chosen as the secretary-general of cafe although to the outside world it wasn't that much of a surprise kaf has been headquartered in cairo since its inception in 1957 and fahmi was part of an egyptian footballing dynasty his father mustafa family was secretary general of cafe for nearly three decades his grandfather murad was kaf's first secretary general and a former government minister but farmi brought with him a new set of priorities a moral absolutism which is commonly found in the ultra scene he wanted to stamp out corruption and wrongdoing whilst modernizing the game he approached the job as a fan and not as a businessman or a bureaucrat var was introduced referees fired and a system of central payments introduced for transparency soon he was rubbing powerful people up the wrong way including his new boss caf president and fifa vice president ahmed ahmed one of the most powerful figures in world football when kaf banned zamalek owner mortada mansour for one year for insulting caf officials mansoor went on a rant against farmi calling him a hooligan and claiming he was holding a vendetta for his role in baiting egypt's ultras but the band stood but soon there was a bigger battle farmy had negotiated a sportswear contract with puma worth around 250 thousand dollars well it seemed like a good deal but he was soon instructed to cancel the contract and accept a different deal with a little known french gym manufacturer called tactical steel for one million dollars four times the amount farmer was deeply suspicious of the newly inflated contract with the previously unknown company he discovered that tactical steel was run by a friend of the caf president ahmad ahmed's personal attache and that the president had personally pushed through the agreement farmi was furious so he began collecting and uncovering more material there were allegations that ahmed misappropriated funds to send african fa chiefs from muslim countries on a pilgrimage to mecca he started putting together a dossier of testimonies from women who alleged that they were sexually harassed by ahmed but just as farmi was about to blow the whistle he found out that he was suffering from a brain tumor he took a leave of absence and undertook a course of chemo it was touch and go but a year later the tumor was in remission and he was back at work he knew that he had limited time and the allies of the president would try to quash the allegations against him and then removed for harming so he sent the dossier of evidence which included allegations of sexual harassment to fifa's ethics committee in zurich ahmed has said the allegations are smears on his character and that they are lies at the same time through a trusted lieutenant farmy began leaking documents to the press and it was all there emails contracts the entire paper trail and as he feared the army was sacked but the story still made it into the international press cafe never explained the sacking though ahmed later suggested that farmi wasn't up for the job but the corruption allegations were so severe that ahmed was arrested and questioned in france before being released without charge although an investigation is ongoing meanwhile fifa president gianni infantino took the unusual step of appointing his general secretary fatma samura as general delegate for africa effectively putting her in temporary charge of kaf whilst an ethics investigation was opened into ahmed's conduct ahmed hung on but farmi wasn't satisfied he decided that if he really wanted to clean up african football he needed the top job so he announced that he would stand in the 2021 calf presidential elections against ahmed ahmed my campaign will focus on pro-africa pro football and anti-corruption he told the bbc but of course it wasn't to be farmy's tumor returned in february of 2020 three months after his candidature was announced amber farmi died he was survived by his wife and his three-month-old daughter banners were raised to honor him across europe the revolutionary ultra who'd built an army on the terraces before taking his convictions into one of football's most powerful jobs just as the delia had in serbia freiburg's famously left wing ultras in germany held a minute silence and also raised a banner under a black and white picture of him it read amrafami your legacy is immortal but that isn't the end of the story at the end of 2020 fifa's ethics committee banned ahmed ahmed from all football-related activity for five years ahmed denied the accusations and appealed to the court of arbitration for sport in the hope that he could still stand in kaf's presidential election but his ban was upheld reduced to two years cass ruled that ahmed likely didn't benefit personally from the tactical steel contract but he was still guilty of acceptance of cash payments bank transfers of bonuses and indemnities without a contractual or regulatory basis on top of that he was guilty of the distribution of gifts and misappropriation of funds related to the trip to mecca ahmed ahmed's disgrace was complete and his slim chances of running were over largely thanks to the trove of documents leaked by whistleblowers who blew the lid you see it was only in death but the true story of farmi's role in founding the ultrazafawi and helping to topple a dictator before launching an anti-corruption crusade could safely come out he wasn't alive to hear the news that fifa had banned ahmad ahmed which disbarred him from standing in caf's presidential election but it was a fitting final act amulefami the secret revolutionary had finally got his man [Music] you

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Id: HNdoET61tzE

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021