Is football returning to Egypt? Depends on who you ask.
Earlier this week, Egypt’s Minister for Youth and Sports, Ashraf Sobhi, announced that teams can return to training on June 20 and that all sports activities can resume from July 25th.
“The ongoing 2019/2020 will be resumed on July 25th, the date that was initially set ahead,” Sobhi told Sada El Balad channel, and was quoted at KingFut.
Since March of this year, the 2019/20 Egyptian league season has been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
The Minister’s announcement may sound like a positive development for a country that has been fighting the virus in the past months, but as always in Egypt, things are much more complicated than they seem.
First, there are a bunch of clubs who oppose the return of the games in the current situation. Ismaily, Al-Masry and Wadi Degla already condemned the decision to restart the season, in terms of the consequences that may erupt in such a return.
While Al-Ahly is one of the leading voices that call to resume the league, Mortada Mansour, Zamalek’s president, is refusing to cooperate with the government’s efforts to re-kick-off the season.
“I am shocked by what the Minister said. We are not sheep. Football decisions concern the president of football clubs, the decision is ours and not the government’s,” Mansour told Zamalek TV.
Mansour is directing his words to multiple Egyptians who are worried to encourage opposition to the return of the games. In the past week, the number of coronavirus cases and casualties has risen.
This ‘second wave’ of COVID-19 is striking a few Arab countries at the moment. The likes of Jordan and Saudi Arabia are still waiting to see whether life can go back to normal, and football can peacefully return.
