Cairo, Egypt - The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in Egypt has ordered  an investigation into the acts of hooliganism that occurred at the Cairo stadium during Saturday's African Football Champions League encounter between hosts Zamalek and Club Africain of Tunisia. The Egyptian Army, in charge of the country's affairs since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, condemned the acts of violence committed by Zamalek fans and promised severe punishment for the instigators of the dreadful acts. Egypt's Premier Essam Sharaf has apologized to his Tunisian counterpart over the incident, while hundreds of Egyptian youths also staged a demonstration in front of the Tunisian Embassy in Cairo to express their apologies to the Tunisian people.

Sharaf also apologized to his Algerian counterpart over attack on the Algerian referee by the Zamalek fans, who stormed the pitch two minutes before the end of the game, to protest an offside call that prevented Zamalek from reaching the next round of the top African Club competition.

Zamalek, which lost the first leg 2-4 in Tunis a couple of weeks ago, was leading 2-1 in the dying minutes of the return leg and thought they were through on the away goals rule after scoring a third goal, which was ruled as an offside goal, instigating the unfortunate incidents.

Match cameras proved in video replays, the decision of the Algerian referee was correct.

Hundreds of Zamalek fans stormed the pitch, attacking the Tunisian players, the Algerian referee and damaging property worth millions of Egyptian pounds at the stadium complex, including chairs, goal posts, advertisements and tearing off the grass of the pitch.

There were no serious injuries and almost 150 arrests were made by the Egyptian police, who were blamed by many critics for not doing their job at the stadium.

Police in Egypt are yet to be fully redeployed in the country and have not regained their strength since angry Egyptians started their 25 January revolution.

African Football's governing body, CAF, is investigating the incidents.

There has been no official decision in Egypt, on whether to cancel the halted local football competition, which was scheduled to resume action in mid-April, with the army, the ministerial council and football officials in consultations.

Indications are rife the local football league could be cancelled or its matches played without club sides' fans following Saturday's ugly events at the Cairo stadium.

PANA reported the Zamalek players and coaching staff stood as human shields to protect the Tunisian players and prevented the unruly fans from hurting the Tunisian guests, with the Zamalek players and coaches taking the beating and the bruises instead.

Pana 05/04/2011