A soccer match or national hope: Egypt vs. Algeria
Nov 14th, 2009 | By Dalia Ziada | Category: Egypt, Egyptian Sport, Football, Op-ed, Sport
Today, at 7:30pm, the whole of Egypt will, unusually, turn to silence. It is the calm before the storm; either a storm of anger or storm of joy. It depends on the results of a football match between Egypt and Algeria national soccer teams. For weeks, the exchange of statements and symbols emphasizing pride and patriotism between the peoples of the two competing nations did not stop. Some fans from both sides went extreme and insulted the history and culture of each others’ nations!
In Cairo, flags are hanging on every street and posted everywhere on the Internet. Logically, Egyptians must beat the strong Algerian team by at least three goals to ensure qualification for next year’s World Cup. This is the last chance for the players of the current team to compete for this great honor. Egypt has not been to a World Cup Finals since 1990.
By stepping out of the box of the breath-taking developments of today’s match inside and outside the playground, we can clearly read Egypt’s future. For years, Egypt has been sinking into a dirty pool of sectarian tension between Muslims, Copts, and Bahai’s. All of a sudden, they forgot about these tensions and silently agreed to unify for a week or two unti the end of the match.
Egyptians decided to stop speaking about their daily problems of pollution, political repression and the deteriorated economic situation. Polls and surveys running online and in newspapers now are not concerned with the next president of Egypt any more. They are all about the results Egyptians expect in today’s match.
Egyptians are crazily supporting their national soccer team, despite the fact that according to logical calculations, the Algerians are in a better position and Egyptians might not make it to the World Cup next year. Egyptians, who immigrated to Europe and North America, seeking better opportunities of dignified life are now restoring their confidence in their homeland and are not ashamed of linking their origin to the land of Pharaohs.
An Egyptian-American friend of mine, who left with his family to America 26-years-ago, is visiting Egypt this month. He came particularly to watch the match with his Egyptian friends and celebrate with them the joy and pride of being Egyptian, before and during the match. He told me he never thought he “loves Egypt that much!†He can hardly speak the Egyptian dialect, but he understands almost every Egyptian word because he was brought up by two Egyptian parents and watched Egyptian movies all the time. Yet, the soccer match restored his confidence in his original homeland.
Football is the most popular sport in Egypt. Yet, it was never of such a great impact on all sectors, age groups, gender and class. It is clear that something more valuable and more important is popping up: a hope for a national story of success. This is exactly what encouraged all Egyptians to unify under the banner of one goal and one hope. I think this is a clue that witty political activists and reformists should use to ensure the change they are seeking for Egyptian society. Egyptians are not passive. On the contrary, they are willing and all-the-time ready to take action and move towards a common goal. Egyptians are not hostile. They are not fighting each other day and night over political and religious differences. These are the symptoms of the real disease of depression and lack of common hope.
This is the clue: common national hope. Give Egyptian people a common hope to fight for and they will make it, not only towards the World Cup 2010, but also towards a better economic and political future.
BM
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I thought you said soccer in the title, and then you started talking about football. which one is which?
Anyways, Soccer (or football, whatever) in the so-called third world has become (in Marx’s terms) the opiate of the oppressed people. Why would I care about a piece of rubber chased by sweaty men for ninety minutes when I am starving to death ’cause my government is sucking my blood? But believe me it’s politicized and it is again another way to divert the people from the government and politics.
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so very true Tesh!
it’s just a game!
we should be united!, not form enemies because of it.
if we just spent this much energy on the REAL issues.
Thank you for your interest in us Almsrben, but there is no noticeable sectarian tension in Egypt, and to I there are some slight differences do not amount to sectarian violence, but that charge and sent us to distort our image abroad, but we insist Moslemn Copts and no problems between us and Albhiin number does not than two thousand people out of 85 million Egyptian
tohamy_1987@yahoo.com
Sorry for my poor english but i will try to make my point clear and plizzzz publish my article
i understand ur article u are saying that there is hope, LOT of hope by egypt wining the game
the unity and prosperity CAN come to ur country. thats ok thats good we are all for it BUT AND
listen u are not playing alone you are playing against an other country
also play is ok its normal but insulting and rising extrem nationalism is dangerous
and also using the soccer match with algeria in order to clan your “dirty” politics that is not fair
We all know tht egyptian economy is very bad also we know that egyptian politics is terrible
there are a feeling of no issues for problems in the egyptian arena
but the way hosni mobarek and his elite did use the game to safeguard power for him and eventualy for his
son jamal is very bad
why will they insult algerian history? culture languageS and dignity?
how on earth will they proclaim Misr Om doniya!!!! who maried them to be the mother of doniya?
u are talking of egyptian pride why not am ok i love egypt i will always love ur history i visited 3 times
egypt i will defenetly visit u this summer i have lot of egyptian friends in egypt in france and algeria
actualy trust me that i phoned at least 20 times to be sure that my egyptian friend is safe in algeria the poor
is in panic because for the first time he told me he is afraid of algerians and imagine that 3 weeks ago we
had dinner together he told me that he prefers algeria i told him i prefer egypt he likes our weather i love
the egyptian mentality every thing easy kol shee mashy hahaha.
BUT how on earth will u insult our revolution?
how on earth will u glorify in a chauvinistic way the pharao era?
they build great civilisation wow i love it but modern egypt is very bad the buildings are very ugly
the pharoes have a kind of strong and democratic government but now u have a very strong hosni mobarek
u egyptian are making a link between pharoes and modern day egypt !!! stop it is not true the grand grand
son of Ramses or akhenatoon that can be today Bishowe or Girgis is not 100% recognized as egyptian
trust me i talked with lot of egyptian copts they suffer extremly from the opression imagine an egyptian chris
tian can nver be president WHY?????
sir we all understand here in ALgeria that egypt wants t have the lead in arab world ok have it we do not care
we even do not want it majority of algerian feels mediteranean french arab african berber latin but not fully
arab me personnaly i never felt arab. u are insulting our language why do u think urs is best or worse
i do think language is for communication i love my algerian language history and culture how on earth will u
be so chauvinistic to something that have NOT lot of importance.
hosni mobarek wanted to use the soccer in order to gain his agendas he failed
right now he wants to gain his agenda by insulting intmidating algeria and its governments
iw3A ya mobarak ihna mosh ahl ghaza
we are ALGERIANS we will use all our means to proove that he must stop his non sense
viva egypt its people its history
down with ur govenment
ALGERIAN WHO LOVES EGYPT