Solidarity in the Midst of Crisis

Egypt's soccer clubs have long been an arena for resistance and political involvement. Here Egyptian Al Ahly star, Mohamed Aboutrika shows the controversial t-shirt that earned him a yellow card (from inpursuitofjustice.wordpress.com)

In Cairo, regular citizens are pulling together to protect their neighbors and communities against looting and violence. Many have taken advantage of the chaos of the protests and the military and police have not provided the security and protection that many civilians now need. Residents have joined in solidarity to form neighborhood watches. In an AP report, once resident said, “This has brought out the best in people. There were people who were much younger than me who have never come across gunfire before…They looked scared. But they were still standing. Everyone was so brave.”

Another organizing force in this uprising are the Egyptian football fan associations. On Thursday the Egyptian Soccer Federation suspended  all league games to stop soccer clubs from congregating. Dave Zirin has an excellent article on Sports Illustrated that shows the nexus of sport and politics as it relates to the protests in Egypt. The power of football to unite people is one SFCG knows all too well. Our multi-country television series, The Team, capitalizes on this power and harnesses it to spread messages of unity and cooperation. This is the role that many of Egypt’s soccer clubs have been playing during the protests. Zirin writes:

“Even without games, the football fan associations have been front and center organizing everything from the neighborhood committees that have been providing security for residents, to direct confrontation with the state police. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent Egyptian blogger said, “The ultras — have played a more significant role than any political group on the ground at this moment.” Alaa then joked, “Maybe we should get the ultras to rule the country.”

The involvement of the clubs has signaled more than just the intervention of sports fans. The soccer clubs’ entry into the political struggle also means the entry of the poor, the disenfranchised, and the mass of young people in Egypt for whom soccer was their only outlet.

As soccer writer James Dorsey wrote this week, “The involvement of organized soccer fans in Egypt’s anti-government protests constitutes every Arab government’s worst nightmare. Soccer, alongside Islam, offers a rare platform in the Middle East, a region populated by authoritarian regimes that control all public spaces, for the venting of pent-up anger and frustration.”

Read the rest of Zirin’s article here.