Like other aspects of Egyptian life that have been overlaid with a religious veneer, sports too has been tinted with ‘faith’—and none more so than football, which remains the most popular national game for Egyptians of all ages. Football players are no longer classified according to their performance, but rather according to their level of faith.
Religious they are
As soon as a footballer scores he hastily bends to his knees to give thanks to God, as if he has been awarded a goal for his ardent faith. Fitness and training apparently play little part, unless they constitute a discipline which brings its own heavenly reward. Coupling religious fervour with sports is not a new trend: since the 1960s some good players have been famous for their religious fervour along with their exceptional talent, including the al-Ahly player Taha Ismaïl who on the field earned the name ‘Sheikh Taha’. Caricatures appeared of Ismaïl in a sheikh’s attire kicking the ball. At that time extreme religion had not yet seized hold of the community, and Sheikh Taha’s talent was not believed to come from his faith but rather from his particular physical fitness and expertise at the game.
By the late 1970s and 80s things had begun to change, with the new Islamic cultural perception making its inroads into society. Basketball player Medhat Warda, the national team captain, was the first to wear ‘Islamic shorts’, which cover the thighs down to the knees, while playing. When the Egyptian basketball team won the Africa Cup Warda refused to raise the cup but raised the Qur’an instead, to the cheers of the commentator who called, “Mighty be Allah, mighty be Allah”. From this point on ‘exceptionally devout players’, as described by the media, began to gain repute, as well as the game of praising their religiosity and pairing their names with qualities such as ‘pious’ or ‘believer’—as if their colleagues were irreverent or profane. They seemed to forget that the real reasons behind their fame was their skill at sports.
Who wins?
With the backing of the media, this attitude soon infiltrated mainstream Egypt to the point where prior to a football game a fight broke out in the Metro underground between an al-Ahly and a Zamalek supporter—these being the two main Egyptian teams. One of the supporters said, “Let God be with al-Ahly today!”, to which the other demanded why God should not be with Zamalek. The al-Ahly supporter then called Zamalek supporters ‘non-believers’. I recall another incident 15 years ago when the finale of the Egyptian Cup was being played on a Good Friday, a friend of mine, a fervent Ahly supporter, went to church on that day and prayed for his team’s victory during the whole service. Until this day my friend believes that Ahly won because of his prayers, as if there were no Zamalek supporters in church that day.
Beyond the limit
Nowadays the players’ religious inclinations are of high importance, especially to their fans. Al-Ahly’s Abu-Treika was named ‘The Saint’ because of his strong faith; nevertheless this particular saint has many times made up incidents during games to win unfair penalties. However when Hassan Shehata, the technical manager of the Egyptian national football team, declared after his team won the 2006 African cup that the reason for the victory was the team members’ commitment to daily morning prayers, many felt this went beyond the limits. One would have liked to ask Shehata why the pious Egyptian team lost against the Japanese team of ‘non-believers’ only a few months earlier.
A close look at the facts shows prayer does not always work, and the 1980s and 90s Gamal Abdel-Hamid who played for Zamalek even reversed the concept. Abdel-Hamid was known as a playboy, and according to superficial religious measures he was certainly not pious. Nevertheless everyone from audience to critics to experts classified him as an exceptional player. After he stopped playing football and took up a role as trainer and technical manager, he grew a beard and became very religious, but never again did he achieve any of his successes during his playboy days.