Where, how and why will Egyptians watch the football extravaganza? On the eve of the tournament Abeer Anwar provides some answers The one-month World Cup is the world's biggest single sporting spectacle. Up to three million people are expected to watch the 32 teams competing in South Africa, with billions watching on television worldwide. Egyptians will be part of those billions. Football fanatics to the core, Egyptians' love for football is both innate and inherited from their great ancestors the Pharaohs who were the pioneers of football, drawn as the sport was on ancient walls. Like all previous World Cups, Egyptians will be intently watching this edition, irrespective of the fact that Egypt is not in it. They will feel the bitterness of not qualifying for the finals after they were on the verge of doing so. Tarek Galal, 48, an architect, said he will be very eager to watch the World Cup, in particular to see Algeria, which knocked Egypt out of the tournament, lose. Ahmed Mansour, 30, an accountant, had a different opinion. "I would be happy to see Algeria win but I will not cheer the team on. "Egypt not qualifying does not mean the end of everything. The World Cup is a great event that we long for every four years." "For me it's very important to follow the World Cup matches even if Egypt is not there since it is part of my job," Amr Makhlouf , 41, a journalist, said. "It's also a golden opportunity to watch international teams like Spain, Brazil, Argentina and England." Some women are just as excited about the World Cup. "I like watching it because I feel that as friends we are meant to do so together," Amal Taher, 32, a dentist, said. "We will all gather at my house and I have prepared the living room for such a huge event. I decorated the walls with the flags of almost all the participating teams and me and my friends prepared T-shirts that we will wear with the names of the most famous players like Messi and Ronaldo." Ismail Emam, an 11th grade student, said, "I'm very upset that I'll be missing the World Cup. We asked our teachers if we could finish our exams early to watch the World cup but no one paid attention. Our parents said they would record it for us but they don't understand how much we will miss sitting with friends and cheering the players and goals and watching something you know its result beforehand." Classmate Hassan Marzouk shared the same sentiments. "My parents will never give me the opportunity to watch. I'm sure I won't do well in this year's exams. Even if I shut all the doors and close all the windows I will still hear people in cafes cheering and screaming. It'll distract me but I feel very bad about not being able to watch." It did not seem to bother the teenagers interviewed that Egypt was not playing. They want to see famous professionals, and not just how they play but perhaps imitate their hair styles as well. Ayman Diab, a hairdresser, explained, "I suffer a lot during World Cup tournaments. All the teens ask me to cut their hair like the World Cup stars so I sit and concentrate during the matches although I am not a football fan, to be able to copy such looks. If I say I don't know they'll go to another hairdresser so I have to be up to date, taking down notes of the famous football players with their different haircuts." Watching football is very much a social occasion and with games available on national broadcast TV the expectation is that many people will choose to watch the World Cup together at home or in a cafe. A lot of Egyptians have decided to watch the World Cup at home with many wives enticing their hubbies to watch indoors. Souad Hussein, an employee, bought a new LCD with a huge screen to be paid in installments over two years. "When Ahmed goes to the café to watch a football match he spends a lot of money on drinks and smokes shisha with friends. He also returns too late so I decided to keep him at home especially that Egypt is not taking part in the World Cup. "The thing that has really changed is the affordability of larger screen TVs, which have brought us half a generation of people entertaining themselves at home." Hoda Hassanean, a housewife added that she will sacrifice to let her husband enjoy watching the World Cup at home. "I promised him that the living room will be a sacred place for him and his friends and I will barbecue and prepare nice drinks for them while they watch the matches." "I feel very jealous when my husband leaves me to go out with his friends for hours all through the month of the World Cup," another wife, Nada, confessed. "So I persuaded him to stay home because this year it's very hot and the humidity is very high so it would be better to keep us company and also enjoy the air conditioning at home." One housewife, Amni Samir, will bring all her friends around and she will barbecue so that the wives can chat outside if they get bored. If it's too hot outside, they'll order a pizza. Samir told her friends they could all pool their money. It would cost more than double if they go to a cafe. Outdoor viewing areas, entertainment before and after games, table service and reserved seating could all help pull in outdoor viewers. But what factors would drive them out instead of opting to watch at home or at a friend's house? According to the people the Al-Ahram Weekly interviewed, the top five factors are: ï special offers on drinks and shishas ï multiple big screen TVs ï special offers on food ï free snacks ï special/reserved seating Other wives thought it was a golden opportunity that their husbands will watch the World Cup matches outdoors. "It saves us time and worry, such as not having to clean up, not having to be interrupted while watching TV to make snacks for friends, and not having to worry about stains on the carpet or upsetting our neighbours," explained Manar Qattawi, 34, an engineer. Rifaat Adel, a banker, said, "I'll miss some important matches but my friends and I have agreed to take shifts in watching the matches live on the internet. Each of us will take a 15-minute break to watch a match while his colleague will be doing all the work at the bank and vice versa. We will rotate as if we are playing a round robin league," Adel smiled. Technology experts say the World Cup could effectively wreck the web as tens of millions of football fans worldwide clamour to watch live streamed matches online at work. IT experts say the volume of the information fans will want to download will cause havoc for consumers, providers and businesses during office hours. The BBC's iPlayer is one service which is planning to stream matches live -- and it could be crippling for companies. Company websites could slow way down or even stall entirely. And then of course there's the fact that many staff may be so engrossed in the match rather than work that their jobs are temporarily forgotten about. A total of 82 per cent of organisations are expected to suffer network performance issues as a consequence of employees streaming sporting events, according to research by communication service firm Kcom. "All firm owners are now being advised to ensure they have a business broadband connection rather than a consumer one, decide if they are going to block video streaming sites and make contingency plans in case the net does crash," one firm owner said. "Or maybe they should just get a TV." In the UK for example, it is estimated that �550 million could be lost by employees watching the World Cup rather than working.
