Clashes between fans of rival Jordanian football teams after a match have injured 250 people and again aggravated divisions between the nation’s native Bedouin clans and its Palestinian refugees.
Police spokesman Col. Ahmed Abu—Hamad says most of the injuries occurred when a large metal fence separating spectators from the playing field in an Amman stadium collapsed during Friday night’s unrest between fans of national teams Wehdat and Faisali. He says 30 policemen were among the injured.
There is a long history of violence between supporters of the two teams.
Most of Faisali’s players and fans are from native Jordanian Bedouin tribes. Wehdat’s players and fans are primarily descendants of the estimated 1.8 million Palestinian refugees displaced after Israel’s 1948 creation.
