NFL players visit Cairo to teach the ‘other’ football

Global Business

Football is massively popular in Egypt, but another, lesser-known sport with the same name hopes to kick off in the country. The so-called “American football” is making its way to the middle east.

CCTV’s Adel EL Mahrouki reports.

American football is still a young sport in this part of the world, but lately it’s gained attention.

Hundreds of players, mainly from Egypt, joined the Cairo event. They wanted to learn from the best, and it’s a unique opportunity for the sport’s lovers. The condensed, two-days training to develop skill was also a quick school to create new referees to this growing sport in Egypt.

The trainers said Egyptians were better in the sport than they expected.

These events are created by the organization American Football without Barriers, which aims to promote physical fitness through American sports across the world.

After China, Brazil, and Turkey, Egypt was their fourth country.

American Football is currently only played in Cairo, so for Egyptians the purpose of such events is to expand the sport in different cities and create more teams. And if an Egyptian is skilled enough, the AMWB could give him an opportunity to continue training in the U.S. with a college scholarship.