150 Jordanians hurt in clashes after football match

AMMAN - Clashes and riots following a football game between Jordan’s leading sports clubs Friday injured some 150 people, including 25 police officers, the government said.

Most of those injured were able to return home later in the day, but 11 remained hospitalised, Deputy Premier Ayman Safadi told the official Petra news agency.

Security authorities were conducting a “comprehensive investigation to probe the reasons for the regrettable incidents that took place at King Abdullah Stadium” south of the capital Amman after a game between clubs Wihdat and Faisali, he said.

“The government will follow up the outcome of the investigations and will take all legal measures against all those who turn out to have violated the law,” he added.

Safadi said supporters of defeated side Faisali were allowed to leave the stadium first in accordance with a prior arrangement to avoid friction with fans of Wihdat, which won the game 1-0 in the 11th week of the country’s national league competition.

Police intervened after a number of fans hurled bottles on people walking outside the stadium, he said.

However, Tareq Khouri, the director of Wihdad club, accused police of using “excessive violence” against supporters of his club, whom are primarily of Palestinian origin.

The two clubs have a record of mutual violence at playing grounds that have repeatedly drawn concerns of fallout on the country’s national unity.