The Egypt football team had an impressive run at the World Cup, beating the Socceroos in a penalty shootout and then leading defending champions and finalists Argentina 2-0 with 11 minutes to play in their final 16 match, before losing 3-2.
Millions of Egyptians felt a deep injustice over that loss, blaming the referee.
The Coptic Christian community that makes up 10% of Egypt’s population has felt a different injustice for far longer.
That’s because only one Egyptian Christian footballer has ever played for his country in the past century.
THE ONE CHRISTIAN FOOTBALLER WHO PLAYED FOR EGYPT
Many Egyptians didn’t even know Hany Ramzy was a believer until he crossed himself before a 1990 World Cup match.
He earned 120 caps, captained the team from 1997 to 2002 and became the first Egyptian in the Bundesliga.
Washington, D.C.-based promoter of religious freedom and Egyptian Coptic Christian Mina Abdelmalak writes in The Christian Post that for decades his 12-million strong community has been calling for an end to the exclusion of Coptic players from the national team.
“NO FUTURE IN FOOTBALL FOR PEOPLE LIKE YOU”
He explains that football is the second language of Egypt for Muslims and Copts alike.
Mina grew up playing football in the streets and joined a football school at Zamalek, Egypt’s second-largest club.
His coach told the Christian boys that football had no future for them — that they should focus on school and become pharmacists or engineers “like your people do.”
Mina writes that this kind of discrimination is a problem the state has never answered for, because officially, it does not exist.
FOOTBALL COMMUNITY BLIND TO THE RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION
Unofficially, the religious discrimination is glaringly obvious.
in 2018, Egyptian footballing legend Ahmed Hossam, known as Mido, proposed a 10% Coptic quota to a governmental committee drafting a sports law.
It was rejected by a majority vote, without debate.
Hassan Shehata, the Egyptian national coach who won three straight Africa Cup of Nations titles, was asked why there had never been a Coptic player on his squads.
He denied any discrimination, pointed to Ramzy, and said it was “up to God.”
DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE OF DISCRIMINATION
Mina Abdelmalak writes that the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has documented coaches asking young Copts to convert, change their names, or find a different passion.
In 2016, Coptic Solidarity, a Washington-based advocacy group, filed a formal complaint with football’s governing body FIFA, urging an investigation.
FIFA has sat on this complaint for a decade.
It took racism seriously once it decided to, with bans, points deductions, and empty terraces for stadiums that tolerated monkey chants.
CALLS FOR FIFA, GLOBAL CHRISTIANS TO INTERVENE
Mina Abdelmalak believes religious exclusion deserves the same reckoning:
“A federation that will investigate a chant should investigate why a nation of over a hundred million has fielded one Christian player in 100 years.”
Coptic Solidarity documented 25 cases since 2007 of Christian players being turned away by name alone, from Egypt’s biggest clubs.
The Coptic Church believes Christians should build their own leagues.
Mina concludes: “A single Coptic name in Egypt’s next World Cup squad would be worth a decade of ‘This is up to God.’”
“The Christian community in the US and across the West, in all its different denominations, should actively press Egyptian diplomatic missions to end this systematic discrimination against Copts in sports.”
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