20100526
all africa

Cairo is one of Africa's most populous and soccer-obssessed cities. Famed for its heavy traffic and notorious driving, it must be hell for fans of capital-based rivals Al-Alhy and Zamalek on match days. How do they enjoy their passion in increasing traffic?

Take an iconic city, quadruple its population, add a few million foreign visitors, throw in the mother of all traffic jams for good measure and then stage one of the most passionate sporting occasions imaginable and what do you end up with?

"Madness," most people would call it. In Africa, they have another word for it: "Cairo".

You certainly have to be crazy - and football crazy in particular - to venture out into the streets of the Egyptian capital on the day of the Al Ahly-Zamalek derby.

Few sporting occasions around the world can match its intensity. The two clubs have a rivalry which can be traced back almost 100 years and which has dominated Egyptian football for as long as most people can remember.

When the two sides meet - or, indeed, when Egypt take to the field for an international fixture - Cairo grinds to a standstill. Muhammed Khaliff, a resident of the city for the last 43 years, lives just outside the city. "When I go to work it normally takes me about an hour to cover the 10kms into Cairo," he said. "But on days when there is a big football match, I leave my house three or four hours before kick off."

The return trip, Khaliff said, through streets clogged with 75,000 flag-waving fans, swerving, speeding, hooting, vehicles and diesel and exhaust fumes, can take even longer. But every weekend Khaliff happily sacrifices a minimum of seven hours of his day in return for 90 minutes of entertainment. His family and friends have learnt not to expect to see much of him on big match days. Indeed, they don't expect to see him at all.

"We pack our cars and use buses to get to the matches, but even that does not help very much," said Khaliff. "You get traffic jams every day of the year here."

Ahmed Moshen is as die-hard a fan. "Football passion here can be compared to Brazil," explained Moshen. "We love our clubs and the national team. I care most about Mohamed Abouterika (Egypt and Al-Alhy's best player) and my club."

Cairo, though, was not designed for such public obsessions. The city was originally built to cater for around 4.5 million people. Today, it is home to 17 million, while attracting almost 12 million extra visitors a year.

It boasts a sophisticated road network but, unfortunately, cannot lay claim to the continent's best drivers. Official estimates put the number of vehicles in the capital, many of them battered and ageing, at around two million. The antics of their owners are often primitive in the extreme.

Wayward driving prevails, sometimes with tragic consequences. Khaliff works in Manial in downtown Cairo, where a speeding, overcrowded bus accident in 2008 led to more than 60 deaths. According to official statistics, between 6,000 - 8,000 people die each year in road accidents.

To make things more difficult still for the city authorities, Cairo International stadium, which hosts virtually all the country's main matches, is located in Nasr city, in the northeast of Cairo. Its location, 10km from the airport, serves only to thicken the traffic flows. Some streets, like El Tahrir, Ramses, El Haram and El Kasr El eini, suffer from perpetual congestion, while Salah Salem Road is one of the busiest in the country.

During the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Egypt, Cairo's traffic police responded with regularly updates on national television for fans heading for the matches.

Cairo's dedicated football supporters, however, barely seem to notice the commotion. "Because we've grown up in a world of traffic, we're used to it," said Zamalek fan Hassan Ramzy. "We're oblivious to it. All we care about is the football. Don't talk to me about jams. Zamalek dominating football in Egypt, that's what I'm intereted in. At the moment, I'm disturbed by Al-Alhy winning the last five titles."

Khaliff agreed: "Growing up here has shaped my patience when it comes to traffic, on match days or any other day."

Spare a thought, though, for those residents with little interest in the game. Cairo's most popular football fixtures matches see up to 75,000 fans spilling onto the street as they make their way to Cairo International. Hasan Yassin, however, who lives in Maadi in south Cairo, is never among them. "I don't leave my house when there are matches," she said. "It's so crowded - all the roads are crowded. A journey that takes half an hour or an hour on a normal day takes 2 or 3 hours on match days.