By Mark Baber
June 30 – The popularity of the World Cup is making for some unexpected relationships in Egypt, especially after a mooted deal to show the games on Egyptian TV fell through.
As Algeria takes on Germany in the second round of the World Cup in Brazil this evening most Egyptian fans will be rooting the Algerians, an incredible happenstance when one considers the enmities around the Egypt v Algeria match in November 2009 which saw attacks on Algerians in Cairo and on the Egyptian embassy in Algiers.
Whilst some Egyptians will be watching the game on Al Jazeera’s beIN Sports subscription service, which is out of the price range of most ordinary Egyptians, many have been adjusting their satellites dishes to be able to watch European and Israeli transmissions for free.
Al Jazeera’s pricing has been lambasted across the media, not just for excluding the poor from watching World Cup games, but also for representing a failure of public diplomacy, as the Qatar-owned channel has stirred up resentment amongst football fans, at the very moment the Gulf kingdom is under attack for its support of the Muslim Brotherhood across the region, which has led to the imprisonment of three of its journalists in Egypt.
beIN Sports, is charging nearly LE1,000 (£82), more than the average weekly wage, for a football subscription package, whilst Israel is beaming the World Cup matches for free This situation has reportedly led the Egyptian Sports Writers Association to condemn an “Al Jazeera conspiracy to force Arab nations to watch Zionist channels.”
The Association demands “all Arabs not to watch Zionist channels, even at the price of not watching the World Cup.” Whilst it is also possible to watch the matches on European channels via Hotbird and Astra, others are happy watching Israeli channels for free as long as it is not contributing to Israeli coffers.
Israeli prime ministerial spokesman Ofir Gendelman has welcomed Arab viewers to Israeli channels, but his comments have received a decidedly mixed response.
The launch of the beIN brand was hailed at the end of last year by its chairman Nasser Ghanim AL Khelaifi as being a demonstration of sports’ “unique power to unite people.” However, the effect of restricting the watching of World Cup matches to wealthy subscribers appears to have united people in hostility to the broadcaster, with the overwhelming feeling being that future World Cups should be made available through Egyptian TV.
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