Friday, July 17, 2026

Players suffocated as Tunisian police fire gas bombs into Esperance Stadium

The Egyptian club players were warming up for the match before the Esperance fans went haywire and created chaos with Al Ahly fans.

• June 19, 2021
Al Ahly and Esperance players
Al Ahly and Esperance players players used to illustrate the story

The most successful African Football Club, Al Ahly have seen their players forced out of the stadium by suffocation as a result of the gas bombs fired into the stadium by Tunisian police to control a riot.

Al Ahly were scheduled to play a CAF Champions League match against Tunisia’s Esperance at the latter’s stadium on Saturday.

The Egyptian club players were training and warming up for the match before the Esperance fans went haywire and created chaos with Al Ahly’s fans which led to the Tunisian police firing gas bombs.

The gas bombs according to the Al Ahly press statement was suffocating their players and they were “unable to breathe” which resulted in pulling themselves off the pitch.

The game is the first leg of their knockout CAF Champions League feature against Esperance with the second leg scheduled to also take place at Al Ahly Stadium in a matter of weeks.

An emergency meeting between officials of both teams has been summoned at the Hammadi Agrebi Stadium with a view to rescheduling the match and settling both sides.

CAF has earlier announced that a total of 5,000 fans would be allowed to watch the game from the stands and this as seen has resulted in a riot between fans of both prestigious African teams.

We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.

More from Peoples Gazette

farmers

Agriculture

FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology

The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Katsina State

Politics

Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku

“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

Mi combat helicopter

World

Russian jailed 13 years for smuggling aircraft parts to Ukraine

The FSB said the man intended to deliver the spare parts to a key enterprise that maintains military aircraft and helicopters for the Ukrainian forces.

Governor Ahmed Ododo of Kogi [Photo Credit: Twitter]

States

Kogi School Abduction: We will never negotiate with criminals, Gov. Ododo says

“Let me reiterate that we will never negotiate with criminals. We will never pay ransom. We will rid Kogi of criminals,” Mr Ododo said.

Maj.-Gen. Adamu Laka

NationWide

Nigeria, UN, U.S. deepen anti-crime partnership with first national strategy

The national strategy is expected to be officially unveiled on August 17.

Xi Jinping

World

Chinese President Xi seeks global cooperation to build artificial intelligence governance system

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged nations to build a just and equitable global artificial intelligence governance system.

TD Bank building

Anti-Corruption

TD Bank insiders facilitating money laundering, fraud jailed 70 months

During the money-laundering scheme, 1,680 official bank checks were processed at TD Bank, totalling more than $92 million.

cassava farmer

States

Ogun, IFAD distribute agricultural inputs to 2,740 cassava farmers

The distribution was done under the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) programme of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.