By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (August 15^th)

Independence Struggle

Today is independence-day of both India and Pakistan. While modern India’s leader of the independence movement, Mohandas Gandhi (the Mahatma) has a very conflicted legacy, especially in Africa, he was alive and well during the early stages of the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa itself – sadly, he was on the wrong side of history there, wanting Indians to be treated apart of the British Empire and superior to Africans – they were not.

As India emerged from Gandhi’s errors – he had left Africa by then – parts of Africa demanded independence and they discovered an important weapon. That weapon was the most popular sport in the world – football. It became part of independence struggles, especially in Africa, but one important struggle where football does not get the credit it deserves was not of the first, if not the first in the continent’s history – Egypt.

The 1920s saw the use of football of a weapon for anti-colonial struggle in Egypt. It was led by the club, which was latter named the Club of the Century, Al-Ahly by the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) the governing body of African football, which would be founded just over 35 years after Egypt secured Protectorate status, but for Al-Ahly and its support base this was not enough. Football and Al-Ahly in particular boycotted the Sultan Cup in 1917 as part of their anti-colonial struggle. Even the Egyptian authorities led by Saad Zaghoul saw the potential and backed the Egyptian team in 1924 – it even managed to unite the players of Zamalek and Al-Ahly behind Egypt’s national cause.

Egyptian Football’s First Finest Moment

While Al-Ahly achieved success on the pitch against English and Scottish teams for the cause – they dominated the Sultan Cup, winning it seven times until it was abolished in 1938. As Egypt prepared for the 1928 Olympic Games Football Tournament, wich would deliver Egypt’s greatest achievement on the world stage in football, but would also be the last time that Olympic football could genuinely be seen as the unofficial world championship of football, and it should be recognised as such, Egypt itself was undergoing turmoil – it had three Prime Ministers in the year.

1928 began with Abdel Khalek Sarwat Pasha as Prime Minister. He was termed a Constitutional Nationalist, but moderate even within that euphemistic definition. It consisted of expecting minor rewards for demonstrating compliance. These niggardly concessions did nothing but punt independence and even an end to colonialism into the distant future. He favoured mild diplomacy with their overlords rather than demonstrating and demanding change, but he saw no contradiction in suppressing revolutionaries or even those who disagreed with his pro-colonialist approach. His pathetic attempt to negotiate a treaty with Britain, the Sarwat-Chamberlain Treaty, euphemistically called a compromise was quite rightly rejected by Egypt’s Parliament, as Britain insisted on keeping its troops available to suppress dissent. As the end of his plans was nigh, Sarwat resigned in March 1928 – he died later that year.

Sarwat was succeeded by Mustafa el-Nahas Pasha who lasted until June 1928, but in that time Egyptian football had what was then its finest moment on the world stage.