ALEXANDRIA, Egypt: Sock ball was long considered a poor man’s game for Egyptian football lovers, but more recently it’s become a show of celebration during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan that takes over the streets.
Originally played with some old socks or scraps crammed inside of each other to form a ball, sock ball is likely to have been the first football played by both Egypt’s massive soccer stars and the fans who root for them.
“The sock ball in Alexandria is so special, it has its own enjoyment, and honestly, not just anyone can play sock ball,” said Ahmed Youssef, a sock player in the coastal city of Alexandria.
A game of skill and strategy, as loyal fan Ibrahim Abu Al Wafa described it, it requires a great deal of talent from players who learn to control a small ball in tight spaces on narrow streets to score on their rivals.
“It (sock ball) has its enjoyment and a wide popularity across Alexandria,” he said of the game he has been in love with since the 1960s.
No expensive ball needed, no need for a club to play in. Everyone in the neighborhood could join in for a game of football in the street.
“These tournaments have always been popular in Alexandria,” said Mohamed Tarik Amin, 33, a driver who coordinates one of the sock ball tournaments in the city.
Over the years, the game has developed. Still called sock ball, players now kick around balls layered with duct tape and thread fashioned into the shape of a small basketball, Amin explained.
Essam Bakkar, 38, works in a clothes factory and has made balls from leather and old pieces of cloth since he was a teenager. Now he uses mass-produced balls wrapped in duct tape and sewing thread for a better grip on asphalted streets.
Nets are set up in side streets, and boys and men of all ages come together to either play or sit and watch from the pavements as players show off their game.
“Since a very long time ago, sock ball has been important here,” Amin said.
‘Sock ball,’ once a poor man’s game in Egypt, now a football celebration
https://arab.news/jrbt6
‘Sock ball,’ once a poor man’s game in Egypt, now a football celebration
- “The sock ball in Alexandria is so special, it has its own enjoyment,” said Ahmed Youssef, a sock player in Alexandria
- A game of skill and strategy, as loyal fan Ibrahim Abu Al Wafa described it
Turkiye to forge on with tight economic policy, some fine-tuning, VP Yilmaz says
- The central bank forecasts inflation between 13-19 percent by end-2026
ISTANBUL: Turkiye is committed to carrying on its tight economic policies in order to cool inflation, and though it may fine-tune the program it will not change course, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said in comments embargoed to Friday.
“There is no plan to pause our program,” Yilmaz said at a briefing with reporters in Istanbul on Thursday. “All programs are dynamic, and adjustments can always be made.”
Yilmaz, who plays a key role overseeing economic policy at the presidency, said any such adjustments would aim to support production, investment and exports while moderating consumption.
Turkiye has pursued tight monetary and fiscal policies for more than two years in order to reduce price pressure, leading to high financing and borrowing costs that have weighed on businesses and households. Inflation has eased slowly but steadily over the last year but remains elevated at 31 percent annually.
Last month, Is Bank CEO Hakan Aran warned that focusing solely on one target — inflation — could create side effects, suggesting a “pause and restart” might be healthy once the program achieves certain targets.
Yılmaz said the government expects improvements in inflation in the first quarter, which should reflect to market expectations for year-end inflation around 23 percent. The government projects inflation to dip as far as 16 percent by year end, within a 13-19 percent range, and falling to 9 percent in 2027. The central bank forecasts inflation between 13-19 percent by end-2026.
Yilmaz noted inflation fell by nearly 45 points despite pressure from elevated food prices, hit by agricultural frost and drought.
The agricultural sector is expected to support growth and help ease price rises this year, which could help achieve official inflation targets, he said.
Yilmaz said the government wants to avoid a rapid drop in inflation that could hurt economic growth, jobs and social stability.
Turkiye’s economic program was established in 2023 after years of unorthodox easy money that aimed to stoke growth but that sent inflation soaring and the lira plunging. The program aims to dislodge high inflation expectations while boosting production and exports, in order to address long-standing current account deficits.
The central bank, having raised interest rates as high as 50 percent in 2024, eased policy through most of last year, bringing the key rate down to 38 percent.
Asked whether lower rates could trigger an exit from the lira currency, Yilmaz said: “What matters is real interest rates. Lowering rates as inflation falls does not affect real rates, so we do not expect such an impact.”
He added that the government will strengthen mechanisms that selectively support companies while improving overall financial conditions.
