By: Rana Hossam Eldine, Shahd Helmy Ali, Engy Reda Mohamed, Malak Mohamed Abdelkader

 Faculty of Mass Communication at Cairo University organized Sunday morning a seminar titled “Our Teams Are Different, But Our Flag Is One" as a part of a Public relations and Advertising graduation project “Raya W Sakina” in the presence of Dr.Hanan Gunaid Faculty Dean, Dr. Nermeen El Azraa, head of English section and Dr. Dalia Mohamed Abdullah, head of public relation and advertising department.

 Sports are supposed to be a unifying force that brings people together, regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs. However, in recent years, the rise of sports fanaticism has led to increasingly toxic and dangerous behavior among fans. To shed light on this issue, EMCCU Today sat down with Mr. Islam El Tahawy, the Media Officer of the National Committee of UNESCO, to discuss the dangers of sports fanaticism and what can be done to address this growing problem.

Mr.Islam El Tahawy explained that fanaticism in general not just the sports fanaticism is a dangerous phenomenon, one of the reasons for fanaticism is the family and that it is the basis of everything, and that one of the reasons for fanaticism is also the treatment of sports channels and the lack of impartiality and objectivity and that a person must be impartial to the situation, as he mentioned an example of fanaticism is port said accident.

El Tahawy declared that the absence of Justice is not only the main cause of sports fanaticism or sports arbitration during the matches, also “one of the reasons for fanaticism is the statements of officials in sports clubs” He also clarified the important role of parents in teaching their children and not being biased towards the situation, or the person in particular, or his favorite teams.
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And on the role of media to avoid sport fanaticism El Tahawy said: “The media, now, must display values and morals, observe the principles of the profession, and spread a culture of tolerance among young people."

Finally as Mr. Islam is the media officer of the National Committee of UNESCO he emphasized the role of UNESCO in fighting sports fanaticism and that UNESCO has a role in building the capacities of young people. The organization is also concerned with education, science and culture, and advises young people to have good morals and avoid fanaticism in life.
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