By James Montague, New York Times, Dec. 19/20, 2012

[....] “The fans were coming, sprinting after the match,” Fathi, 28, recalled last week. “I knew they hated me and all the players. All the players ran. I didn’t know what was happening outside. But something was happening outside. After this they killed the boys. Not the men, the boys.”

As Fathi and his teammates took refuge from the Masry supporters in a changing room, one of the darkest incidents in soccer history was unfolding in the nearby bleachers.

Within the hour, more than 70 Ahly fans — all of them young men, many of them members of the club’s fan group, the Ultras Ahlawy — lay dead [....]

It was the bloodiest single day in Egypt in the wake of the ouster 22 months ago of President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for nearly three decades. There were widespread accusations that the military-led government that had replaced Mubarak allowed the violence to escalate to justify its powers and undermine the revolution.

In the aftermath, the soccer league’s season was immediately canceled. Play has yet to resume and some clubs are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. But Fathi and his teammates have somehow endured and continue to play on . The team dedicated itself to taking part in the most prestigious competition that remained — the tough African Champions League — and vowed to honor those who died by winning it.

And it did.[....]