Egypt: Deaf football team receives little media attention
In Egypt, a national football team has been suffering from a problem that is not normally associated with the most popular sport in the world.
Despite playing in the final of the World Cup, the deaf football team have received very little media attention.
Claire Read reports from Cairo.
(Script for this video:
This may look like an ordinary training session. But there are no shouts of encouragement and no referee's whistle. This is Egypt's deaf football squad.
[Clip: Fouad Abd al-Hamid, Team coach] - There's hardly any difference between deaf football and ordinary football. The same international rules. The only difference is the referee uses a flag instead of a whistle.
Despite the similarities, the squad does not enjoy as high a profile in the media as the national team. But it has achieved something that no other Egyptian team ever has - they came second in the 2012 World Deaf Football Championships. They were congratulated by prominent figures in politics and sport at a special meal during Ramadan, but, they believe more needs to be done.
[Clip: Khaled Biyoumi, Sports expert] This is a good start to correct mistakes and to explain to the media we need those champions. We need champions in individual and team sports.
The players often have to rely on their own resources to support the team.
[Clip: Muhammad Ahmed, player on Egypt's national deaf football team] I wasn't working before but now I have to work as a teacher in a deaf school.
The team hopes there world cup achievement will bring in more support.
[Clip: Muhammad Ahmed, player on Egypt's national deaf football team] We started getting help from the minister and the Paralympics committee in training camps. We hope now, after our success, we can ask for more help.
And the team hopes the upcoming Paralympic Games will help focus more attention on the efforts of all disabled athletes in Egypt.
Claire Read, BBC News, Cairo.)
10 Sep 2012
- From the section Africa