Al Masry Club Stadium

Al Masry Club Stadium, on the northern edge of Port Said, is home to Al Masry SC — one of Egypt's oldest football clubs, founded in 1920, and the team around which Port Said's intense local football culture centres. The stadium holds around 17,000 spectators and is regularly full for Al Masry's Egyptian Premier League matches.

The stadium became internationally notorious following the 2012 riot that killed 74 people, one of the worst sporting disasters in Egyptian history. The events of that night, and the subsequent trials and sentences, are still a raw subject in the city. Football here carries more political and communal weight than in most places, and an Al Masry match, if one is on during your visit, offers an insight into the city that no museum can provide.

things to do sight
A story
On the night of 1 February 2012, after a match between local club Al Masry and Cairo's Al Ahly, violence broke out that killed 74 people and injured more than 500. The scale of the disaster, and the suspicion that it was at least partly tolerated or organised, led to widespread protests across Egypt during an already volatile period following the 2011 revolution. Port Said's stadium was subsequently closed for years, and the city's relationship with the rest of Egypt remains coloured by the events of that night.

Other places in Things to Do