Why the Muslim Brotherhood was blamed for Egypt's World Cup woes
Why the Muslim Brotherhood was blamed for Egypt's World Cup woes
Fresh off a massively disappointing performance at the 2018 World Cup, the president of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA), Hany Abo Rida, deflected criticism of his team's woeful play by casting blame on the Muslim Brotherhood. The Pharaohs lost all three of their matches in a group widely thought to have offered Egypt a serious chance to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament.
In his comments to al-Watan newspaper, Abo Rida neglected to specify how the banned Islamist organisation contributed to Egypt's 3-1 loss to Russia or how it conspired to squander the lead in the 2-1 defeat to perpetual World Cup laughingstockSaudi Arabia in the group's final match.
Since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former head of Egypt's armed forces, took power in a military coup five years ago, an inability to stabilise the country and a series of policy failures have necessitated a frequent turn towards hypernationalism. If anything, Abo Rida's farcical response to his team's disappointing performance is consistent with the Sisi regime's practice of blaming its political foes for every failure.
Shortly after their team's final defeat in Russia, Egyptians quietlycommemorated the five-year anniversary of the violent end to a revolutionary moment ushered in by the 2011 popular overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak. Backed by mass protests, el-Sisi led a military coup in July 2013 that expelled the Muslim Brotherhood-led government, formed in 2012 after free elections.
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