The sour losing dramatis personae that included the USA, Australia and their overconfident entourage of media, speculators and sports fans, are definitely having a laugh at the dismal portrayal of the “football” scene here during the ASIAN CUP 2011. They thought they had the World Cup it in the bag, (Qatar who? what? No way it’s ours!)Do not get me wrong here, I am more oriented to the fact that they would indeed provide a more credible hosting stage, but that is old news! Little did they know and including us that indeed it does not mean that if you are an immense country with almost bountiful resources that are not restricted to just money, that you will be granted hosting rights, but not so because this is the complexity of politics and oh yes a theory that I would like to call “sugar-coating the reality”. Catchy words of the like, “Middle East world cup”, “Center of the World”, “Prime Time Heaven” etc:
Yes, I agree that football by far here is the most preferred subject of discussion and also viewership, but does that mean it is in tandem with a rich and strong “football culture”? Does the fact that being blessed with world class sports facilities and even deeper pockets per capita entitle the honor of the world football organization to an almost NOW synthetic and soul-less fervor limited to home and café viewing crowds? Qatar’s history in football WAS indeed strong not too long ago, but now? I would like to quote what a game commentator on AlKass had said on the match with China when he said “…..and now here he comes, ooooh that was a strong tackle with Lawrence ..oops I mean Anas Mubarak…!”
This is a clear and depressing and heartbreaking depiction to the almost contractual nature of almost EVERYTHING here. Nothing is “natural” here! For crying out sake even the people bearing the national colors have to be bought and “contracted” with! Weight lifters, football players, sprinters, long distance runners, etc: I believe there are people who deserve that type of recognition even though the notion of being a second class citizen is almost certain.
Your “football passion” has to be so bad that even you would have a “rival” country (Iranian Coach) actually advising and warning you that indeed the world is watching so yeah get your act together and get some people to watch your games. Um no thanks we won’t because simply we don’t care and we are too lazy!
In other countries organizing committees are trying ways to provide maximum benefit for the maximum people, while here it’s getting the maximum crowd! Mind you the crowd has to be and ONLY INCLUDE “Families”! Hmmm crowds of families*although easily attainable, but families that are preferred are the ones that they would find in their dictionary!
* (Definition of “FAMILY”:- Any group of people unless they are NOT a group of south Asian or African males. “Families” SHOULD be well dressed AND SHOULD have at least one of any members either a locally dressed male or a western individual. Women groups or groups that include at least one female member of any nationality are taken as “family”.)
For those of you newbie’s and “wanna-be” football fans reveling in the glory of the world cup win, here’s a bit of insider info before you bash on me about the fact that the past Qatar matches have been sell-outs in the Asian Cup.
There are various organizations that are employed in bringing in fans and people to stadiums and in due course provide “incentives” for those who do make it. No, they don’t bribe them with money to come and see the games, but they have their ways! Each sports club has its own fan supporter’s base that is linked to the club. These clubs are then in turn contacted and “rewarded” in order to bring their fans. Many and many calls later, each club would have a substantial amount of “fans” that would show up for these games. Now of course I have no idea what these “incentives” are. Also to mention the various voluntary organizations who deploy their “armies” of volunteers not just for the organizing committee but for also creating this sort of giving a local flavor to the “pseudo-camera friendly spectator atmosphere”! Schools both public and private are contacted for a slice of these “incentives”. My niece got a brand new shiny mobile phone when the Asian games were done 4 years ago, to which she proudly quipped she gathered it by attending the various games through the school. She told me that every time she passed the entrance an official would pass her an envelope with some amount of money after counting the number of students and the head teacher producing their school ID’s! Desperate!
Not to mention the “contracts” that is awarded to companies by bringing their labor force for different games. I kind of liked the style of the coordinator of the last Emir Cup. Towards the last games of the quarter-final, there were two teams namely “Um-salaal” and “Ahli” that were playing together. I happen to have been near the Qatar sports club stadium for the fact that I was invited to a café nearby. So I and my friend decided to take a look at the match. On the practice pitches side we saw a huge number of busses the ones used to haul laborers to their work sites being parked all around. And as we went inside the stadium my thoughts were right! There were rows and rows of these poor laborers some of them still in their work gear, “supporting” teams that they don’t know, care or want to know about! A large number of them were even given “thobes” and Arabic head-gear “ghutras” to make it look like from far that they were genuine supporters, as long as the camera-men do not zoom towards them!
I mean come on I am not a globe trotter but I have not seen or heard anything like this anywhere else! I might write and bewail about it all, and it would fall on deaf years. I might even deviate from it so I might as well stop right here for you all to digest and comment on what I have just said.
Yes, I agree that football by far here is the most preferred subject of discussion and also viewership, but does that mean it is in tandem with a rich and strong “football culture”? Does the fact that being blessed with world class sports facilities and even deeper pockets per capita entitle the honor of the world football organization to an almost NOW synthetic and soul-less fervor limited to home and café viewing crowds? Qatar’s history in football WAS indeed strong not too long ago, but now? I would like to quote what a game commentator on AlKass had said on the match with China when he said “…..and now here he comes, ooooh that was a strong tackle with Lawrence ..oops I mean Anas Mubarak…!”
This is a clear and depressing and heartbreaking depiction to the almost contractual nature of almost EVERYTHING here. Nothing is “natural” here! For crying out sake even the people bearing the national colors have to be bought and “contracted” with! Weight lifters, football players, sprinters, long distance runners, etc: I believe there are people who deserve that type of recognition even though the notion of being a second class citizen is almost certain.
Your “football passion” has to be so bad that even you would have a “rival” country (Iranian Coach) actually advising and warning you that indeed the world is watching so yeah get your act together and get some people to watch your games. Um no thanks we won’t because simply we don’t care and we are too lazy!
In other countries organizing committees are trying ways to provide maximum benefit for the maximum people, while here it’s getting the maximum crowd! Mind you the crowd has to be and ONLY INCLUDE “Families”! Hmmm crowds of families*although easily attainable, but families that are preferred are the ones that they would find in their dictionary!
* (Definition of “FAMILY”:- Any group of people unless they are NOT a group of south Asian or African males. “Families” SHOULD be well dressed AND SHOULD have at least one of any members either a locally dressed male or a western individual. Women groups or groups that include at least one female member of any nationality are taken as “family”.)
For those of you newbie’s and “wanna-be” football fans reveling in the glory of the world cup win, here’s a bit of insider info before you bash on me about the fact that the past Qatar matches have been sell-outs in the Asian Cup.
There are various organizations that are employed in bringing in fans and people to stadiums and in due course provide “incentives” for those who do make it. No, they don’t bribe them with money to come and see the games, but they have their ways! Each sports club has its own fan supporter’s base that is linked to the club. These clubs are then in turn contacted and “rewarded” in order to bring their fans. Many and many calls later, each club would have a substantial amount of “fans” that would show up for these games. Now of course I have no idea what these “incentives” are. Also to mention the various voluntary organizations who deploy their “armies” of volunteers not just for the organizing committee but for also creating this sort of giving a local flavor to the “pseudo-camera friendly spectator atmosphere”! Schools both public and private are contacted for a slice of these “incentives”. My niece got a brand new shiny mobile phone when the Asian games were done 4 years ago, to which she proudly quipped she gathered it by attending the various games through the school. She told me that every time she passed the entrance an official would pass her an envelope with some amount of money after counting the number of students and the head teacher producing their school ID’s! Desperate!
Not to mention the “contracts” that is awarded to companies by bringing their labor force for different games. I kind of liked the style of the coordinator of the last Emir Cup. Towards the last games of the quarter-final, there were two teams namely “Um-salaal” and “Ahli” that were playing together. I happen to have been near the Qatar sports club stadium for the fact that I was invited to a café nearby. So I and my friend decided to take a look at the match. On the practice pitches side we saw a huge number of busses the ones used to haul laborers to their work sites being parked all around. And as we went inside the stadium my thoughts were right! There were rows and rows of these poor laborers some of them still in their work gear, “supporting” teams that they don’t know, care or want to know about! A large number of them were even given “thobes” and Arabic head-gear “ghutras” to make it look like from far that they were genuine supporters, as long as the camera-men do not zoom towards them!
I mean come on I am not a globe trotter but I have not seen or heard anything like this anywhere else! I might write and bewail about it all, and it would fall on deaf years. I might even deviate from it so I might as well stop right here for you all to digest and comment on what I have just said.
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