Soccer is often portrayed as the world’s great unifier—a place where national rivalries are set aside, where athletes compete honorably, and where victory and defeat are accepted with dignity.
Apparently, nobody told Egypt’s national soccer team.
Before facing Argentina, the Egyptian players gathered in their locker room for a pre-game prayer (video here). But this was not a generic appeal for safety, teamwork, or sportsmanship. Instead, the prayer consisted of Koran verses condemning the beliefs of Christians and Jews—and included repeated denunciations of Christianity’s central doctrine: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Worse still, the players were not reciting their own words; they were reciting what Muslims believe are the literal words of Allah contained in the Koran.
They began with the opening chapter of the Koran (1:6–7):
‘Guide us to the straight path — the path of those upon whom you have bestowed favor, not of those who have incurred your wrath or of those who are gone astray.’
Mainstream Islamic interpretation has always identified ‘those who have incurred Allah’s wrath’ as Jews and ‘those who are astray’ as Christians.
In other words, one of Islam’s most frequently repeated prayers begins by dividing humanity into those who are rightly guided and those who have earned divine displeasure.
But the Egyptian team did not stop there.
They repeated Koran 112:1 three times:
‘Say, “He is Allah, [who is] One… He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.”’
And Koran 5:73 three times:
‘Infidels are they who say, “Allah is one in a Trinity.” There is only one God. If they do not stop saying this, the infidels will be afflicted with a painful torment.’
The meaning is unmistakable. These verses directly reject the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ.
So why would an international soccer team choose these particular passages before competing against other nations?
Because religion is not merely a private matter in much of the Muslim world, it remains a central marker of identity—one that defines not only who belongs, but those who do not, in this case, the Christian team of Argentina.
Which brings us to Egypt’s Christians—the Copts, descendants of the ancient Egyptians and one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
For years, Coptic advocacy groups and human rights organizations have documented discrimination against Copts in Egyptian society, including allegations that Christian athletes have been prevented from joining soccer clubs precisely because of their faith.
‘A team that finds unity by reciting verses traditionally understood to condemn Christian beliefs is hardly creating an environment where Christian participation is welcomed’
Coptic Solidarity’s report, Discrimination Against Copts in Egyptian Sport Clubs, documents case after case of Copts who were excluded from soccer clubs simply on account of their Christian faith.
In that context, the Egyptian team’s prayer takes on a renewed significance.
A team that finds unity by reciting verses traditionally understood to condemn Christian beliefs is hardly creating an environment where Christian participation is welcomed.
And then came the irony.
After Egypt lost to Argentina, Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan insisted that Egypt had been cheated. In an interview, he said,
‘Life is still—and the world is still—not fair. It’s one thing for there not to be any fairness in everyday life—but no fairness in soccer? No fairness in sports?… I’m not going to sugarcoat it and say “ah, it’s just hard luck… good team… good result for Argentina”—no I won’t say such things. I say we were deliberately wronged today…. Argentina’s victory is totally undeserved.’
The irony is breathtaking: a man who oversees an entire industry that denies Christians from playing soccer—simply because they are Christian—unabashedly complains about how ‘the world is not fair’—including even in soccer… even in sports.
In the end, the Egyptian soccer team’s prayers and behavior reveal something many in the West prefer not to acknowledge: religious ideas matter. Sacred texts matter. And the beliefs people recite—even before something as seemingly harmless as a soccer match—can reveal deeper assumptions about friend and enemy, believer and unbeliever.
The world may want soccer to be merely soccer.
But sometimes a locker room prayer reveals far more than what happens on the field.
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