Follow up - Ahmed Maher: African Cup of Nations (ACN) organizing committee chief Hani Abou-Reida insisted that they will tighten the security around Cairo International Stadium in Egypt’s quarter-finals match against DR Congo on Friday.

Abou-Reida announced that the organizing committee will meet with Ministry of Interior officials along with Confederation of African Football (CAF) representatives on Thursday to study the necessary security measures for the match.

The organizing committee chief also urged local media and press reporters not to get any other unauthorized people along with them while entering the stadium to try to avoid a repeat of the last matches’ disastrous scenarios, which saw both authorized reporters and first-class ticket holders fighting over seats.

Abou-Reida also stressed that higher-rank police officers will act as filters at the stadium gates to insure that no one without tickets would get in, and said that they dedicated a large part of the Class-A area for the reporters watching the game and urged them not to complain about the seating so as not to cause chaos.

Reporters without the proper authorization were also urged not to force their way into the tribune and to respect the organizing committee volunteers and officials.

Abou-Reida, who said that they gave DR Congo fans 200 free Class-A tickets to attend the match, announced that the stadium doors will be open from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm (CLT), extendable to 5:30 pm, and urged the Egyptian public to go to the stadium as early as possible for easy and swift access.

Abou-Reida concluded the press conference by saying that the reason for the disappearance of Class-B tickets was that 3,000 tickets were sold before the African Cup through internet and mail offices around Egypt, and 2,000 were reserved for security reason, thus leaving the rest of the Egyptian population running after 7,000 tickets.