Amid the decline of the Egyptian Diroui .. Why do the clubs of the army and companies do not support their mass counterparts?

Khaled Masri-Cairo

With the Cairo stadium full in the last matches of the Egyptian Olympic team that went up to the Tokyo Olympics, the question of the absence of a security decision was returned to the sports community, which negatively affected the level of the league and the players and reflected on the level of the first team, which drew in the first two matches during the qualifying Nations. African.

With the growing question about the future of public clubs in the absence of the masses, some point to the impact of the crisis positively on the clubs of military companies and institutions that have no fans in the first place.

The irony is that there are dozens of public clubs scattered in the governorates of Egypt, but they do not find the financial competitiveness, which led some of them to fall to the second division, although they are the first source of outstanding players in Egypt, in contrast, the clubs of companies and military institutions have great financial capabilities without mass coverage.

This paradox prompted some to talk from time to time about the possibility of channeling these financial capabilities towards provincial clubs that are popular regionally, which can contribute to raising the level of the general league, and thus a positive impact on the national teams at various stages.

By the end of the nineties of the last century, private companies' clubs emerged on the surface, followed immediately by clubs affiliated to the Egyptian Armed Forces, followed by clubs affiliated to the Ministry of Interior, which had a negative impact on the popular clubs, because these clubs attracted players and coaches with their financial capabilities that the provincial clubs could not. .

Before the decision to ban the fans, the spectacle of the stands in the league and cup matches was "bleak" because of the lack of fans, and no one dared to complain, because the owners of corporate clubs businessmen close to power, as well as army and police.

Gains of military leaders

A security source talked about the armed forces' investment in clubs and football, and why the money is being spent rather than directed to poor and popular clubs.

The source told Al Jazeera Net that the plan at the beginning was to honor former leaders in the armed forces and put them in the management of clubs to obtain material privileges, where they were selected talented players from clubs wanted to recruit and forced to play for the army vanguards, as happened with the Egyptian star Abdel Sattar Sabri in the nineties and cut trip His professionalism in China, Ayman Hefny, and finally Amr Gamal player Ahli.

He added that "it turned with the outbreak of the January 2011 revolution into a political vision, after the hands of the armed forces extended to all joints of the state and control, and sport is an essential part of Egypt's national security, and must have more than one club and playground to stay within the sports scene."

Violation of FIFA law

Article 18 of the statutes of the International Federation of Football (FIFA) stipulates that no institution is entitled to own more than one club in one league, which applies to the Egyptian league that combines the institutions of the interior, military and petroleum.

A source within the provisional committee of the Egyptian Football Association said that the board is already working to avoid these mistakes, as FIFA asked the appointed committee to draw up a regulation in line with international laws.

The source added to the island Net "We are now working on the application of the rules of FIFA strictly, but will not be applied only with the beginning of next year after the completion of the matter in all its aspects, and not to harm any party."

He said that the clubs of the border guards, the army vanguards and the military production are affected if the law is applied strictly. If the Egyptian league enters the stage of full professionalism and launching the title of "professionals" it must be merged into one club.

He continued, "Petroleum clubs and the Ministry of Interior temporarily out of the account, because the Petroleum Authority is represented by only one club is Enppi after the landing Petrojet and landing clubs Interior and Police Union of the Ministry of Interior."

The source pointed out that the current committee in charge of running the affairs of the Football Federation will be more difficult task, as it will have to address the military establishment to choose only one of the three to which it belongs, namely, the border guards and the army vanguards and military production.

Meanwhile, FIFA regulations expert Mohamed Fadlallah said that the crisis facing the Football Federation is not only in petroleum, army and police clubs, but also in the implementation of the 2019 FIFA regulation that will topple many clubs and youth centers that do not meet the requirements for club licenses and FIFA regulations. Foot.

Fadlallah explained to Al Jazeera Net that the FIFA regulation will reduce the number of clubs and youth centers from 258 to 88 or 64 clubs only, whose officials have the right to vote on any decisions when holding any ordinary or emergency general assembly.

Crisis of the new sports law

A source within the Football Association revealed that the new sports law allowed existing clubs to establish companies that hold 51% of their shares for sports investment, which made a person like Turki Al-Sheikh intervene and buy Al-Assiouti club and convert it to "Pyramids" and inject money in a way that does not suit the exchange of the Egyptian market.

The source explained to Al Jazeera Net that "the law prohibits the establishment of companies to invest in sports directly, but requires first obtain a license from the Directorate of Youth and Sports, and the establishment of clubs with members and social activity to invest in sports."

"But investors are now circumventing this and buying clubs that already have licenses, such as the Egypt Clearing Club, which bought Hindawi club members in Fayoum, and Pyramids, who bought Assiouti in Beni Suef."

The source pointed to the monitoring of these two cases only, but the Football Association will not be able to stop more if they are repeated, because they did not violate the law, but managed to circumvent it.

Solutions and proposals

On the solution of this crisis and the return of popular clubs to the forefront again and reduce the waiting for the phenomenon of corporate clubs, the lecturer at the International Football Federation Taha Ismail said that the solution lies in increasing the sources of income of clubs, and trying to find some kind of partnership between popular clubs and companies.

Ismail revealed to Al Jazeera Net that he had earlier submitted a memorandum to the former Football Federation headed by Samir Zaher that these companies to advertise themselves on the shirts of popular clubs, and to exploit the advertising resources, and thus achieve mutual benefits, advertising for companies, and increase the income of popular clubs, but No one responded to his request.

In the opinion of the sports expert that the solution to the brutality of corporate clubs and institutions in Egypt is to increase the sources of income for popular clubs and the masses through three solutions, the first return of the public to the stands, and therefore there will be high sales of tickets, and in the case of a stadium for each club will sell more tickets and thus increase their revenues. The denial of fans to attend matches in Egypt continued to be considered as a non-existent ticket item and the boards of directors did not rely on it.

The second solution in Ismail's view is television broadcasting, with the presence of a tyrannical mass of Ahli and Zamalek in Egypt, the rights of television broadcasting them are the largest among the rest of the clubs, which gradually decreases with popular clubs such as Union, Ismaili, Egyptian and even to corporate clubs.

He pointed out that the third solution is to build special stores for clubs such as Europe and Saudi Arabia, where each club there own shop and its products sell shirts, hats, badges and other goods that generate a high return on those clubs.