Football’s bright side

CAIRO- 4 July, 2017: Apart from how football talents appear and the atmosphere is amazing, football has a bright side that makes games stand out.
Egypt Today decided to take a look at five things on the bright side of football that make “the pride of games.”

First on the list comes Atletico Nacional’s club attitude towards Chapercoense football club’s airplane crash. Both teams were to face each other in the Copa Sudaamericana final on December 8, 2016, but after Chapecoense’s air plane crashed in Columbia the team was unable to play after several deaths. The match was cancelled and the trophy was supposed to be given to Atletico Nacional. However, the Columbian club refused to receive the trophy and sent a request to the CONMEBOL, which was later accepted, asking them to hand the trophy to Chapecoense.

In second place comes the match between Brazil against Haiti. “The match has a story behind it that shows the importance of football and how it can affect a complete nation.

The Brazilian Federation offered Haiti to play a match called “match for peace” where in order to buy a ticket you had to hand in a gun. This act helped reduce the rate of crime and violence because the people from Haiti were excited to watch the Brazilians who won the 2002 World Cup after beating Germany 2-0.

In third place come the action by the Spanish Football Club Barcelona regarding the lucrative sponsorship offers. In 2007, FC Barcelona rejected many offers and decided to continue carrying the UNICEF badge on the shirt before agreeing to change their sponsor to Qatar Airways. Barcelona also recently invited the Afghani child Murtaza Ahmed to a friendly match where he was able to meet his idol Leo Messi. Murtaza was seen playing football multiple times in Afghanistan though he could not afford to buy a Barcelona shirt with Messi written on the back.

In fourth place comes Zamalek and Ismaily’s decision not to continue their match after the death of Al Ahly supporters. In February 2001, 72 Ahly supporters died due to violent clashes with Al Masry fans. On the same day, Zamalek SC was supposed to play Ismaily SC at night, but after going to the match and playing 45 minutes both club captains and coaches along with the referees agreed not to continue the match due to the incident.

Fifth, comes Paolo Di Canio’s decision in Everton’s match in 2001 to stop the play and let Everton’s goalkeeper Paul Gerrard receive treatment after being severely injured. It is something that we do not see every day. Most strikers would take the opportunity to score a goal, while Di Canio decided to catch the ball with his hands and move towards the goalkeeper.

Actions like these, alongside talented players and great fans justify calling football “the Beautiful Game.”