Football Fandom in Egypt

In this chapter, I survey the football fandom ecosystem in Egypt. I first describe the media environment around the sport and chart out the geographic structure of fan support for teams in the Egyptian Premier League. I then examine how fandom intersects with politics, both as Egyptian leaders have sought to use support around Egyptian football to build legitimacy, but also how Egyptian football fans have often been a significant political force acting independently of the ruling regime. I argue that different groups in Egypt have sought to use the intense interest in Egyptian football to pursue external goals, a dynamic that sometimes generates conflict when these goals are at odds. I conclude by outlining the social organization of football fandom. I illustrate how the most committed fans are young single men living in urban areas and who are more engaged in religion than the average citizen, after which I describe the role of women and the Coptic Christian minority in Egyptian football.NB -- Uncorrected proofs for: Jerzak, Connor T. ``Football Fandom in Egypt.'' In Routledge Handbook of Sport in the Middle East, pp. 196-207. Reiche, Danyel, and Paul Michael Brannagan, eds. Routledge, 2022. Replication data are available at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SG3BOV