Reverse coverage, zone defence, 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 are being bandied about throughout TV soccer studios, but do we really understand what the experts are saying? Ahmed Hamdi analyses the situation In the late 1990s, the Nile Sport channel started what was then the first soccer analysis show on Egyptian television. Now, more than a decade later, Egyptian fans have a variety of such shows on over six television channels to choose from, each presenting at least two analysts, both usually ex-football stars, and a former referee who will tell you in minutest detail almost each and every decision the referee and his assistants took. Most current analysts are former soccer stars who enjoyed huge success on the field, including Farouk Gaafar, Hassan El-Shazli, Ali Abu Greisha, Essam Abdel-Minaam, Mustafa Younis and Ayman Younis. On shows such as Stade Masr (Egypt Stadium), Malaib Dream (Dream Fields) and Modern Kora (Modern Football), they come armed with volumes of paper full of enough player and team stats, diagrams, historical tidbits, inside information and opinions to last several hours of air time. Much of their audiences comprise the loyal patrons of oriental cafes. For decades, the cafes have been discussion waterholes, gathering the educated and the uneducated, the rich and poor, old and the young, having a conversation not only with friends but with complete strangers. Issues of politics, society, and the economy are debated but top billing is usually reserved for soccer. Before every important or meaningless match, soccer fans will sit together in any of the hundreds of oriental cafes that dot the cities and put forth their own views, deciding who to substitute in the second half and who should not be playing at all. The cafes have thus been for decades a microcosm of the world of soccer analysis. Because cafes in Egypt are well known for being the seat of all of Egypt's soccer "experts", Al-Ahram Weekly decided to pay a visit to one small cafe in the back streets of the low- income neighbourhood of Al-Sayeda Zeinab. The question was whether in this bastion of football knowledge, do we lay people truly understand what analysts are saying during pre and post-match presentations. "Not really," replied Mahmoud Sami, 63. Sami believes that soccer is easy to understand but that analysts try to complicate it to make themselves look smart. "Instead of saying, for example, 'the players should stay calm' analysts would say, 'the players should have emotional stability." According to Sami, the usage of these complex expressions has built a barrier between the analyst and the viewer. Sami himself prefers not to watch before or after analysis shows which he says makes him appear less than intelligent, looking forward instead to having "normal conversations" about the matches later with friends. "We talk the same language and we are not less smart than these analysts. We've been watching soccer for more than 50 years," Sami added. Alongside Sami sat Hitham Abbas, 20, a third-year business student. Although Abbas agreed that friends chatting about matches was more enjoyable, analysis is still very important. "Most analysts are former soccer players so they know what they're talking about," said Abbas. "They give viewers more information and insight into various formations and tactics. "When I used to talk about the 4-4-2 formation, for example, I used to see it as every player being a block with direct but no tactical movements, the way I play it on Playstation. But analysts were the ones who told us about the role of each position and player," he added. "If analysts understand formations we wouldn't lose any matches," said a disbeliever, Mahmoud Sobhi, 45, a construction worker sitting in front of Sami's table. Sobhi interrupted Abbas, referring to the coaches who double as soccer analysts. Sobhi believes that analysts patronise viewers as if they have never seen soccer. "Before every match they say something like 'in 3-5-2 the half defenders should cover the wingers when they are in an offensive position' and after the match, when a team loses, 'the half defenders did not do their job' and that is repeated every time," said Sobhi. "Some of them say naive things like 'the striker should score,' as if it's something we've never heard of before." Sobhi insists that not all analysts are sub-par. "Zakaria Nasif (on the Ahli Channel) and Mohsen Saleh, for Nile Sports, do not repeat themselves and can read matches very well." Critics, including Ayman Abu Ayed, president of the Sports Critics Association, have their say as well. "What we have here in Egypt is not really soccer analysis," claimed Abu Ayed, who says soccer programmes in Egypt might take up to three hours of broadcast time before and after games just to fill up the empty slots of sports channels. "The proof is that when there are no matches these channels broadcast reruns that no one watches," said Abu Ayed. Being an analyst is more than being a former soccer player. "The analyst should be a sports journalist who has been writing for at least 10 years, or a player who has taken coaching courses," he said. "Today, anyone who wore a soccer T-shirt one day is an analyst." But Abu Ayed does believe analysts can deliver useful information to the viewer, using Taher Abu Zaid, presenter of Nile Stadium on Nile Sports, as an example. "When the presenter is neutral, he can help give simple information to the average viewer,"Abu Ayed said, though believing that most people do not care about the analysis part unless there is a controversial decision that was taken by the referee that needs some explanation, like a goal which is disallowed. "Otherwise people don't care except for the 90 minutes of the match and that could be seen clearly in any cafe. As soon as the referee blows his whistle, everyone leaves." Moataz El-Dahshori, journalist and former producer of Al Malaib Al-Youm, said in a story aptly called 'Clutter' and published in Al-Super magazine at the start of the Egyptian league in August, that after following five sports shows on five different channels, he saw no difference in content; only in the different faces. El-Dahshori said the shows were a "disappointment" with no new ideas or vision. "Even the sports news reports use the same vocabulary and expressions as if they were written by the same person and sent to all." Arguing that they all copy each other, El-Dahshori believed the Ahli channel to be the best after signing on the likes of Taha Ismail and Mahmoud Bakr which he said added to the value of their analysis show, Malaib Al-Ahli. Despite agreeing with most people interviewed by the Weekly that not all people understand soccer analysts, Nader El-Sayed, a former Egypt international goalkeeper and an analyst himself on Qatar's Al Jazeera Sports, says the shows work to deliver useful information to the audience. "Not all people can read stories in newspapers about soccer games so analysis works on showing and illustrating the arts of the game more and help to deliver such information to the people watching."
