Video: African Cup revives popular cafes in Egypt

Hassan El Masry - Cairo

While the Cairo International Stadium is full of crowds and the streets are empty of passersby during the evening, popular cafés thrive on fans who prefer to follow the 2019 African Cup of Nations - especially the Egyptian team - with their friends.

The popular cafes are the destination of many Egyptians to spend leisure time with friends, and recently become a sign of sports tournaments, where young people flock to watch the important games in an atmosphere of enthusiasm is not free of jokes, and sometimes quarrels.

As soon as the game begins, the cafes are bursting with enthusiasm and sharp applause as a kind of support for the Egyptian team, especially when the goals are achieved as the cafes are filled with enthusiastic expressions.

Khaled (cafe owner in the Dokki district of Giza governorate) explains that cafes are the icon of Egyptians all the time - especially during the matches the team participates in - where they are full of fans.

He pointed out that the days of the team's games are from the days of emergency, because of the large processing starts from the early morning to provide seats and drinks and the processing of large screens to display games.

The rise in ticket prices, which reach LE 150 for the third degree, has revived coffee shops, some of which are aimed at imposing different games fees for different areas of the neighborhood, amounting to an additional 10 pounds or more along with the prices of drinks and shisha, The owners of a popular cafe in the Zaytoun area in Cairo governorate.

Al-Jazeerah met some of the coffee-goers to find out why they prefer to watch games there. Attiyah Mahmoud said he enjoyed playing games at cafes with friends, something he had been accustomed to for over a decade.

Abdullah, meanwhile, criticized the rise in ticket prices, pointing out that despite the reduction of the price to 150 pounds is still a large amount for a football match, stressing that this is why he decided to boycott encouragement from the stadium and just watch the cafes.

Mohammed al-Sayyed said he tried unsuccessfully to get tickets for the matches but to no avail. Tickets are running out quickly and temperatures are rising. He decided to watch the matches with his friends and neighbors at the cafe near his home.