Ultras White Knights

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Ultras White Knights UWK '07 (Arabic: ألتراس وايت نايتس) are the leading ultras group in Egypt and are so far El Zamalek's only ultras group; they made their first action on 17/4/2007 in the Arab Champions League semi-final home tie against Jordanian champions Al-Faisaly. Their first official banner was unhurled on 13/8/2007 against Ismaily. The group's motto is "Curva Sud La Prima" which is an indication of the group's loyalty to their historic curva since Curva Sud (talta yimeen/ the east stand) has historically been allocated for Zamalek fans.



They follow their club in all sports and are actually the only ultras group in Africa to ever make an action indoors; so far they have made 4 indoor actions - one in volleyball and 3 in basketball.




The group was founded by ex-ZLU (Zamalek Lovers Union) members who decided that in order to make the atmosphere at Zamalek games better, they had to form an ultras group since regular fan unions were very inefficient regarding this matter and within mere weeks the ultra mentality began to spread across Egypt and the number of members was rapidly increasing which was easy considering Zamalek's huge fanbase all over Egypt and the Arab world.


Contents

[edit] Background

Zamalek has a huge fanbase throughout not only Egypt, but also the Arab world [1] and even most clubs in Egypt have more sympathy for Zamalek than they do for Al-Ahly (but Zamalek's ultras group is trying to shun this mentality since they claim that fans of a certain club should support their club only). Zamalek supporters are known to be very loyal and have relentlessly followed their side in many rough times where they went for years without a single title. Zamalek fans are known as "Zamalkaweya".




[edit] Ultras Movement in Egypt

Ultras in Egypt are a relativley new phenomenon and have been critisized greatly by the Egyptian media who are currently holding an anti-ultras stance. Egyptian ultras have been trying to rebutt the false claims made by the media in more than one manner; many ultras from different groups even tried to get together and make a fanzine to clear up the misocnceptions regarding ultras.


Nontheless, members in Egyptian ultras groups are rapidly increasing and Egypt is currently home to 6 ultras groups: Ultras White Knights (Zamalek), Ultras Ahlawy and Ultras Devils (Al-Ahly), Ultras Yellow Dragons (Ismaily), Ultras Green Eagles (El-Masry) and Ultras 300 (Tanta).


However, another problem facing ultras in Egypt today is that regular supporters have little knowledge of what an ultra is and even commentators and TV hosts refer to them as "rawabit al moshag'een" or fans unions which just displays the ignorance on the matter of ultras in Egypt. On a lighter note, 2007/2008 was a fantastic year for ultras in Egypt where it was the most efficient country in Africa in terms of tifosi where leading Egyptian groups made more actions than leading groups in Tunisia and Morocco such as Ultras L'Emkachkhein of Taraji/ Esperance, Leaders Clubiste of Club Africain, Winners of Wydad Casablanca and Green Boys of Raja Casablanca. This is mostly because Egyptian clubs have the largest fanbases in Africa and therfore have the most members which makes it easier to make more actions.


Another problem facing Egyptian ultras is that people find it difficult to accept something new and many people critisize ultras for their "lack of morals" and tendency to settle disputes violently. A handful of people also claim that ultras spread hate between both sets of fans and "lack nationalism" since ultras members publicly celebrate when their rivals have been defeated by non-Egyptian teams. Many of these misconceptions have been tackled and debunked by Egyptian ultras, however.


Despite the large amount of critisizm on ultras, many articles have been written praising the ultras for making the atmosphere better in stadiums [2] .



[edit] Sections

Although Ultras White Knights is considered as one single entity, the vast majority of their members are concentrated in Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta even though there are a few members from many other cities such as Port Said, Kalyubia, Sharkeya, Mahala, Suez etc.


After Cairo, the largest number of members in UWK are from Alexandria and UWK Alex are known to make an action in any game Zamalek plays in Alexandria whether the sport is football, basketball, volleyball or handball.



Some pics of UWK Alex:




UWK Tanta also have a large number of members and they also make actions in the rare occasion when Zamalek plays in Tanta.



Some pics of UWK Tanta:



[edit] Relationship with the club

Ultras White Knights have no relationship with their club or the club board even though the club once allowed UWK to use one of Zamalek's training grounds for space to make their 5 tifos in the 101 derby against Al-Ahly. Zamalek's board refuse to comment on UWK in contrast to Ultras Ahlawy's relationship with their board where the Ahly board of directors decided to not recognize UA at all.



[edit] Songs

Prior to the uprising of ultras in Egypt, the supporting style in Egypt was very weak where, in big games especially, fans used to sing their hearts out before the match and not say a word during the match itself; ultras came and changed that and concentrate their support during the 90 minutes of the game and not before the match itself.


Also, the traditional supporting style in Egypt is comically known as "tashgee' el tabla wel zomara" where "songs" where actually a few witty rhymes which lasted no longer than a minute. Ultras in Egypt knew that it would be impossible to support for 90 minutes with these short songs and decided to adopt Tunisian-style songs which where comprised of many verses and lasted for a good 4 or 5 minutes; this way it was easier to support for the full 90 minutes. However, this came by a lot of critisizm from the fans who said that they couldn't support with the ultras since the songs were in the Tunisian dialect, so as a compromise, UWK started supporting with a Tunisian style but with Egyptian words.


[edit] Ultras White Knights's Album

A problem Egyptian ultras have been facing is that many regular fans don't know the words to their songs, so in order to solve this problem, UWK released an album called "Our Glory" (أمجادنا) with most of their songs which were released to all fans interested in learning the songs [3].





[edit] Merchandise

Ultras White Knights' only piece of merchandise so far is their t-shirt which is on sale to members and fans who support in the stadium with UWK. On the front it says ULTRAS White Knights, the name of the group, and on the back it says "Curva Sud La Prima" which is the motto of UWK.



UWK are currently working on a hoodie which will be released in the winter.






[edit] Banners

Ultras White Knights have 3 official banners: one for home games, one for away games and one for indoor games. The home banner has been changed twice already making this their third home banner.







[edit] Friends/ Enemies

[edit] Friends

Ultras White Knights have no official friendships with any group, but on a personal level many members have friendships with members of Leaders Clubsite of Tunisian side Clube Africain, Ultras Yellow Dragons of Ismaily and many members of UWK Tanta section are good friends with members of F.C Tanta's ultras group Ultras 300. It is common to see Zamalek flags and banners at games of Ismaily, Clube Africain and El-Masry even though there is no official friendship between any of these groups. Also, Winners, the ultras group of Wydad Casablanca, paid Ultras White Knights a visit in their CAF Champions League tie against Angolan Champions Inter Clube which was a gesture of good relations between Zamalek and Wydad fans.


[edit] Enemies

Main article: El-Ahly versus El-Zamalek Derby

The Cairo derby between Zamalek and Al-Ahly is the 6th fiercest derby on Earth according to BBC[4]. Al-Ahly and Zamalek have been respectivley chosen by FIFA as the 1st and 2nd best clubs in Africa and both hold a joint record of 5 CAF Champions League titles - both clubs achievements in Africa are far greater than any other African team which is why they both have the largest fanbases in the Eastern World. The derby is so fierce that foreign referees have to be brought in since whenever a native ref is used, both sets of fans accuse him of being biased towards one club. The biggest result of these derbies was 6-0 for Zamalek in the 1943/ 1944 Egyptian Cup Final [5][6][7][8][9].


Disturbances, riots and fights during these derbies led to the decision of the Egyptian FA banning both clubs from playing on their original stadiums (Mit Okba Stadium for Zamalek and Mokhtar El-Tetsh Stadium for Al-Ahly) and instead they play on government-owned stadiums such as Cairo International Stadium or Cairo Military Academy Stadium - this has been the case ever since the 60's . During these derbies, security precautions are at an all-time high and there is always a neutral end between both sets of fans in which no fans are allowed to sit and are heavily gaurded as so the fans don't fight. Many matches have been called off due to cases of violence between fans and even players; players who make the switch from Zamalek to Al-Ahly or vice-versa are booed throughout the whole match and fans throw bottles and stones at them to express their disaproval of the player.


However, both clubs regulary meet in basketball, handball and volleyball games and in almost every one of these games, fights break out between both sets of fans and dozens are arrested since it is easier for the fans to apporach each other and fight in indoor stadiums.


[edit] Actions




[edit] References


[edit] External links


[edit] See also