By: Mariam Salama

On the sidelines of MCCU event to discuss Sports Fanaticism and ways to confront this phenomenon in our society, as part of graduation project “Raya W Sakyna” event from the public relations and advertising department with cooperation with the English Section, EMCCU Today had the opportunity to interview Mr. Mohamed Al-Qusi, Journalist And Sports Analysist.

Do you see that football fanaticism negatively affected the Egyptian teams, especially that football fanaticism was the main reason for depriving the Egyptian stadiums of their fans, which represent a factor of strength in the performance of our Egyptian teams?

We are now living in an age of intolerance. The football fans are not satisfied with encouraging the team they belong to only, but rather they have become ridiculing and hating the opposing team and wishing for it to fall and lose until the state of fanaticism reached the point of wishing the victory of a non-Egyptian team
against the competing team, also the affiliated media and personalities who are not responsible for their statements play a major role in increasing football congestion, as the role of the media is supposed to be based on the public interest, not the specific club, and all of this, of course, contributed in the increase of fanaticism that affects the Egyptian sport.

Recently, we have seen a lack of passion, encouragement, and belonging to the Egyptian national team, as we used to see before football fanaticism existed. We see that the fans have reached the point of boycotting the team as a result of a certain player from his team not joining the national team. What is your comment on that and to how can this fanaticism end?

Sports Fanaticism is the basis of the problems that the Egyptian football suffers from, so it must be the main affiliation and support to the national team, and this fanaticism made us not belonging to the national team ,and this appeared in the fans attendance, where it is very small in the national team’s matches, in contrast to the attendance in club matches, in which the number of fans is very large, and all of this happens as a result of the biased media and the statements of officials provocative.
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Does football fanaticism have a strong impact on the referees` performance during the matches?

Yes. Every fan interprets the referee’s decisions according to his football affiliation. If the arbitration decision is in favor of my team, it is correct, and if the arbitration decision is against my team, it is said that the referee is complimenting the other team so that I do not win, and the referees are under great pressure because of football intolerance, and this led to the use of experts for referees.

Does the Egyptian media, and in particular the big sports channels, such as Al-Ahly and Zamalek, have a role in fanaticism?

Yes, it has a role in football fanaticism. It is assumed that the role of the media is based on alleviating tension and football fanaticism and the existence of a good relationship between the two clubs, so it is assumed that the workers in the media platform from the two clubs must be qualified to work in the media.
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