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Being a professional footballer, a way of the cross for the Coptic Christians of Egypt

Cairo, Dec 12 (EFE).- Mina Bendary, a 26-year-old Egyptian, saw her dream of becoming a professional footballer vanish simply because she was a Christian in Egypt, a Muslim-majority country where Copts are systematically discriminated. in the institutions, but also on the courts. In 2014, the young man passed the tests to play as a professional in the Al Ittihad team, the most important team in Alexandria and one of the main teams in the Egyptian first division, but was rejected because her name, Mina, is exclusively Christian. . “They told me that in order to continue as a player, I had to change my name, from Mina William Bendary to another Muslim. For this reason, I decided not to return to the club and quit football completely” , he assures in an interview with EFE. Mina’s story is that of “many more”, she laments, who watch with frustration how they are forced to give up their identity to make a name in the world of football, a sport in which only one in Egypt has reached the top A dozen Christians in the last 50 years AN ACADEMY AGAINST DISCRIMINATION With the aim of giving opportunities to other Christians who dream from being footballers, Mina founded ‘Je Suis’ in 2015, a humble academy to integrate young Christians, Muslims, boys and girls, who have a common passion. Its mission is “to help Christians to play football, especially families who have stopped sending their children to clubs so as not to feel rejected”, which he said “could affect the love they feel for your country”. Today ‘Je Suis’ has around 250 boys and girls, committed to “changing the ideas that society has” and with the hope that one day the academy can become a first division club and break with the collective imagination that the Copts have no talent for football. NO COPTIC REPRESENTATION Between 10 and 15% of the Egyptian population is Christian, but their representation is far from this level. “The number of Copts remains around 2% in almost all sectors, whether in the judiciary, in education, government jobs, diplomats… Everywhere you look, Copts are 2%, but in football, the figure is even lower than that,” Lindsay Rodríguez, director of development and promotion at the NGO Coptic Solidarity, told EFE. Currently, the Egyptian football team does not have a single Christian. In the 18 first division clubs, Christians represent less than 1%: they are only five among the more than 670 registered footballers, according to the EFE, according to the origin of the names of the players. The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) claims to have no data in this regard. Sources close to the situation reduced the number of players to two, and assured EFE on condition of anonymity that “it is almost impossible” for a Copt to be signed by a club in the country, which rejects any non-foreign footballer who is not Muslim. Coptic Solidarity investigated this discrimination and recorded numerous cases of Egyptians being rejected because of their names and beliefs, a “systematic” screen to prevent non-Muslims from representing Egypt, according to Rodríguez. MUTISM OF EGYPT AND FIFA Consulted by EFE, the spokesman of the Egyptian Football Federation, Walid el Attar, insists that the federation does not have figures on the number of Copts in the first division and assures that “there are no restrictions of any kind or discrimination between Muslims and Christians in Egyptian football”. “Not having enough Christian players in the first division gives no indication of anything” , assures the spokesperson, who adds that he has not received any complaint from FIFA on this subject. raza, color de piel, origen énico, nacional o social, género, discapacidad, lengua, religión”, among others. Failure to comply with this article “will be liable to suspension or expulsion”. FIFA, for its part, claimed “not to be able to arrange an interview n” with the EFE, but assured in a brief e-mail that he had held “a series of exchanges on this subject with the parties concerned”. He also stressed that he will “continue to work” with the EFA to “promote inclusion and encourage equal access to football for all”. “FIFA is very aware of the discrimination and blames the EFA, but the truth is that if they wanted to stop the discrimination they are the only ones who have the power to change it and they refuse to do anything about it. topic,” said the head of Coptic Solidarity. , who held several meetings with officials of the organization. OPEN SECRET Few Egyptian figures have dared to address the issue for fear of reprisals, as Rodríguez points out. One of the latest to do so was Ahmed Hossam, better known as ‘Mido’, a former Egyptian Muslim footballer who played for Spain’s Celta de Vigo, among others. “Honestly, in Egypt there is a lot of discrimination and in my opinion we have to deal with it. Does it make sense that in the whole history of Egyptian football, only five Christians are in the top flight?” Mido wondered during a local TV interview in 2018. The former footballer also picked up a quota of representation between 10 and 15% for Christians in the Egyptian league, a claim that was rejected. Since then, Mido has not spoken on the subject and refused an interview with EFE. And that is that to date, there has only been one Coptic footballer who has made it into the national team: Hany Ramzy, in the 1990s, a lonely figure with whom Egypt maintains that there is no discrimination (c) EFE Agency