The history of football in Egypt stretches back to pharaonic times, where you can find records of the game carved into the walls of ancient temples. Today, from the streets to the stadiums, in every village, town and city Egyptians are playing football. Internationally, the Egyptian national team has won the Africa Cup of Nations a record seven times, more than any other African nation. If there’s one thing that can unite all Egyptians, it’s football.
However, people’s hectic day-to-day schedules mean amateur players often struggle to find others to play with. The usual Facebook and WhatsApp groups used to connect players and coordinate matches are filled with hundreds of inactive users who never respond to messages. The struggle of finding people to play with is worse for those who aren’t members of online groups and players who are looking to play matches in new areas.
This is where Find Me Football comes in. It’s a mobile application that removes the typical hassle associated with these online groups in Egypt. The idea came to co-founders Mohamed Sarwat and Ali Abou El Nasr when they were living abroad. The two couldn’t find anyone to play football with and there wasn’t a simple way to find or organize matches. So the two decided to create Find Me Football, to directly cater to Egypt’s massive but underserved amateur footballer community.
After signing up, users can create or join football matches across the country. They can quickly view what matches are being organized in their local community and learn where the games are being held, the number of spaces available, start time, and they can even select what side they’d like to be on before kick-off. Users can also search for available pitches in their area and reserve directly through the app. Abou El Nasr tells us that while other previous attempts allowed users to reserve pitches, Find Me Football is the first application that connects people wanting to play football. If users find a pitch that isn’t on Find Me Football’s list they can manually add it, increasing the app’s already large list of football venues.
Initially, the two co-founders thought people would mainly use the app to coordinate matches between friends. However, 80% of the matches created through its app are public, meaning total strangers can join them. Over 100 matches are organised each month on Find Me Football, including seasonal tournaments where players can compete for big rewards like cash prizes.
The two have big ambitions for their mobile platform. They want to grow Find Me Football into a fully-fledged social network and expand its already long list of features. Soon users will be able to vote on the Man of the Match after every game and buy football merchandise through the app such as football boots and match tickets. So far there has been an incredible reaction to the app, and the co-founders describe how their app has brought people back to football and made them fall in love with the game all over again. The two want to launch their app internationally, in other countries across the Middle East, connecting even more players through their love of the game.
If you see something out of place or would like to contribute to this story, check out our Ethics and Policy section.
