Saudi imams warn against mixing of sports, politics and protest
By James M. Dorsey
Saudi and ultra-conservative imams have warned in separate statements against the mixing... more
By James M. Dorsey
Saudi and ultra-conservative imams have warned in separate statements against the mixing of sports and politics and protests against autocratic regimes, which, according to some, results from of the mingling of the sexes in sports.
The warnings come against the backdrop of Saudi efforts to shield the Gulf from the wave of popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, renewed focus on the role of militant soccer fans opposing military rule in Egypt and pressure on the kingdom to allow women to compete for the first time in an international tournament during the London Olympics.
Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh quoted in the kingdom's Al Watan newspaper warned that the protests that have already toppled the leaders of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen and brought Syria to the brink of civil war were sinful. "The schism, instability, the malfunctioning of security and the breakdown of unity that Islamic countries are facing these days is a result of the sins of the public and their transgressions," Sheikh Abdulaziz said.
Such sins include, according to Imam Abu Abdellah of As-Sunnah mosque in Kissimee, Florida, speaking in a video posted on the Internet, the mixing of the sexes at sports events. “In the past it was only men, now it is almost half half (in stadiums). Allah knows what happens afterwards. Either way it is bad. Either people go out, they are sensing and partying and drinking and all that, so that’s negative. And if they don’t, they go out and they demonstrate and they’re angry and they destroy property and they destroy cars and they destroy people’s business. Either way its haram (forbidden), things have to be done in moderation. These are the things that are associated with sports that the believers have to be careful with,” Abu Abedallah said.
“So there is nothing wrong with watching and practicing your favourite sport as long as you adhere to the norms. When it comes to the way you dress and the way you behave, where you’re going to be, what are you going to be listening to; are you going to be mingling in crowds you are not supposed to be mingling with? All of those things do matter when you are practicing or you are watching your favourite sport,” the imam said.
The clerics’ statements came as Saudi Arabia prepares for a summit of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in which it hopes to foist closer political and military cooperation on its largely reluctant co-members Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE. Bahrain, which last year brutally squashed with Saudi assistance an uprising against its minority Sunni Muslin rulers, is likely to be the only GCC state to fully endorse the notion of a political union.
The statements also come as International Olympics Committee president Jacques Rogge is under pressure to make good on his pledges earlier this year to stand for gender equality by banning Saudi Arabia from this year’s London Olympics if it fails to field women athletes. A Human Rights Watch report released in February, called on Saudi Arabia to protect women's equal right to sports and urged the IOC to live up to its charter, which prohibits discrimination, or face a ban similar to that imposed on Afghanistan in 1999 partly for its exclusion of female athletes.
With Qatar and Brunei expected to have women athletes for the first time this year in their delegations, Saudi Arabia would be the only country in the world that still refuses to allow women to compete. The kingdom has recently hinted that it would not stand against Saudi women living abroad competing, but would not field athletes from the kingdom itself.
In separate statements, two Saudi religious scholars admonished soccer players that bad behaviour could lead to a ban on public attendance of matches. It was not immediately clear what incidents of bad behaviour they were referring to.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Suleiman Al Manei, a member of the Gulf Kingdom’s supreme scholars committee and an advisor to King Abdullah warned that “the spread of such (bad) acts on play fields is a clear indicator of a decline in moral values and the transformation of sport from fair competition into bigotry. The continuation of these bad phenomena which pose a threat to the ethical values of our sons makes the attendance of these matches a hateful thing. This means that going to these matches could become prohibited because what is happening there has a strong negative impact on the society.”
In a statement of his own, Sheikh Abdullah Al Mutlaq, another member of the supreme committee, denounced players for allegedly faking incidents in a bid to get a referee to award a penalty in their team’s favour. “These are acts of deception, which is hated and forbidden in Islam…..the sin becomes worse when the player swears by Allah falsely…players should refrain from such wrong acts as they have become a bad example for the young generation,” Sheikh Al Mutlaq said without reference to specific incidents.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a consultant to geopolitical consulting firm Wikistrat.
Trade unions reject World Cup-related Qatar labor measures and threaten global boycott
By James M. Dorsey
International trade unions this week rejected World Cup-related Qatari proposals to meet... more
By James M. Dorsey
International trade unions this week rejected World Cup-related Qatari proposals to meet concerns about worker rights, including health and safety that violate international human and labor rights as well as principles the Gulf state had adopted as a member of the International Labor Organization ILO.
The unions said they were moving ahead with plans for a global campaign this summer under the motto 'No World Cup in Qatar without labor rights’, to deprive Qatar of its right to host the 2022 World Cup if it failed to align its labor legislation and workers’ condition with international standards.
“It is not too late to change the venue of the World Cup. This is not an industrial skirmish about wages; this is a serious breach in regard to human and labor rights. The country is incredibly wealthy and is portraying itself as a model country. That is simply not true. Our members are football fans and they don’t want to see the game played in a country that practices slavery,” Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents 175 million workers in 153 countries, said in a telephone interview.
A spokesman for the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee declined to comment on Ms. Burrow’s statements.
The looming confrontation between Qatar and the international workers’ movement comes at a sensitive time for the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that incorporates Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. The GCC is preparing for a summit in Riyadh later this month to discuss a political union that would allow Saudi Arabia to pressure the smaller states to fall in line with its more conservative social and foreign policies at a time that the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing popular revolts in demand of greater freedom.
The issue of labor rights is also sensitive because several Gulf states have populations that are in majority foreign. Beyond the commercial and economic advantages of a cheap pool of labor, discussion of any kind of rights for non-locals raises the specter of the minority Gulf population in countries like Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait no longer having a country that is theirs and which they control.
“It’s a real problem. Everybody knows that,” said a source close to Qatari and Gulf thinking on the issue against the backdrop of the UAE and Bahrain alongside Qatar seeking to project themselves as global sports hubs. An attempt by Bahrain to project an image of business as normal and distract attention from continuing popular discontent despite the suppression of last year’s revolt by letting Formula 1 go ahead last month backfired with protests overshadowing the race.
Ms. Burrow said the unions were seeking an urgent Qatari acceptance and implementation of international human and labor rights because the Gulf state was about to start construction of World Cup-related infrastructure.
Qatar’s 2022 Supreme Committee this week issued a second tender for the project, design, commercial and construction management of one of the 12 stadiums it is planning for the tournament, nine of which will be newly built. The three remaining stadiums already exist but need to be refurbished. The committee earlier tendered the contract for a master planning and lead design consultant for the stadiums.
“Gradual change is not good enough. The urgency is because the stadiums are about to be constructed in a serious way. Companies are gearing up their supply chains and costing infrastructure on a model of modern day slavery. We want that to change and companies might have to adjust their costing and pricing accordingly,” Ms. Burrow said.
Qatar with a majority expatriate population expects to import up to one million foreign workers to complete infrastructure needed both for the World Cup and the development of the energy-rich nation.
In a statement, the ITUC said it had requested an urgent meeting with Qatari labor minister Sultan bin Hassan, charging that “workers are dying in Qatar as they build World Cup stadiums and infrastructure, and suffer large scale exploitation every day.” Ms. Burrow said she had yet to receive a reply to the letter, which was also sent to world soccer body FIFA.
The union leader said that some 200 Nepalese died last year in Qatar, a favored destination for the country’s low skilled expat labor; 30 of them while on a construction job while another approximately 70 as a result of the country’s brutal summer temperatures that rise above 40 degrees Celsius. It was not clear whether any of these deaths were directly related to World Cup-related construction. “We quite confidently predict that more people will die off the field than there are players on the field,” Ms. Burrow said. She said she would soon be travelling to Nepal for discussions with the government and trade unions.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Burrow pointed to a report in The Himalaya Times that described Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia as “graveyards for young Nepali workers in the 25-42 years age group.”
The unions in a meeting with FIFA last November gave the soccer body and FIFA six months to ensure that workers in Qatar have “the legal right to organize themselves in free, independent trade unions without punishment or interference from authorities” that could “collectively bargain” with employers.
“Construction workers, the majority who are migrant workers are risking their lives today as they work in poor and unsafe conditions with low wages. They need trade union rights today to protect them", the ITUC statement quoted Ambet Yuson, General Secretary of Building and Wood Workers International, as saying.
Ms. Burrow said the fight for workers’ rights in Qatar was a battle for labor rights in the region. She said of the three GCC states – Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait – that legally allow trade unions only Bahrain had enshrined international standards in its legislation. She said Bahrain’s progress had however been marred by last year’s Saudi-backed brutal repression of a popular uprising in which teachers, nurses, doctors and others were detained and tortured for demanding basic democratic rights.
“Bahrain was on track until it came under pressure. The prime minister admitted to us that there were concerns from the Gulf states around them, Saudi Arabia in particular but also Qatar etc. Bahrain at least had public recognition of the rights if not realization of those rights in their totality because of the pressure of the Gulf states,” Ms. Burrow said.
She said a Qatari proposal for the creation of a labor committee and abolishment of its controversial system of sponsorship of foreign labor was a “far cry” from union demands for a free and independent trade union and equitable and human working conditions. Qatar is seeking to project itself as a show case member of the global community, “yet it is so far outside the basic human framework of human and labor rights” that it need to choose between being part of the international community or a model of 21st century slavery, Ms. Burrow said.
Qatari media this week quoted Labor Undersecretary Hussain Al Mulla as saying that the country’s emir was considering a plan to establish a Qatari-led labor committee that would represent workers’ interests as well as an abolition of the sponsorship system that would stop short of allowing foreigners to freely change jobs. Qatar recently abandoned the requirement that foreign workers surrender their passports to their Qatari employers. Mr. Al Mulla said the plan had already been endorsed by the Qatari prime minister.
Denouncing conditions of foreign workers in Qatar as 21st century slavery, Ms. Burrow said unions were demanding not only improved health and safety conditions but also the ability to live freely in the community, bring their families and move freely in and out of the country. “Current conditions are absolute enslavement to the employer,” Ms. Burrow said.
She said Mr. Al Mulla’s proposal for a labor committee involved creation of a government controlled body rather than an independent trade union. The way Qatar planned to abolish the sponsorship system failed to create a level playing field or guarantee workers’ freedom of movement, she said.
Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee Secretary General Hassan Al Thawadi pledged early this year in a speech at Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in Doha that the Gulf state would adhere to international labor standards.
"Major sporting events shed a spotlight on conditions in countries. There are labor issues here in the country, but Qatar is committed to reform. We will require that contractors impose a clause to ensure that international labor standards are met. Sport and football in particular, is a very powerful force. Certainly we can use it for the benefit of the region." Mr. Al Thawadi said.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Qatar to legalize trade unions as Saudi Arabia pushes closer Gulf cooperation
By James M. Dorsey
Qatar, in a bid to fend off an international trade union campaign against its hosting of... more
By James M. Dorsey
Qatar, in a bid to fend off an international trade union campaign against its hosting of the 2022 World Cup, is taking cautious steps to meet demands backed by world soccer body FIFA, to allow the establishment of the emirate’s first trade union and to scrap its controversial system of sponsorship of foreign labour condemned by human rights groups as modern day slavery.
The Qatari concessions come as the Gulf state in which foreigners account for a majority of the population envisions recruiting up to one million overseas workers for massive infrastructure projects. The projects will all benefit the World Cup but many, including a new airport, expansion of the transport system and hotel and residential compounds were on the drawing board irrespective of the sports tournament.
The Qatari decision increases pressure on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that still ban unions to follow suit. Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait have all legalized trade unions but Bahrain is the only other Gulf state to have abolished its foreign labour sponsorship system.
Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE are however likely to follow Qatar’s example any time soon. Qatar’s concession to FIFA and the international trade unions comes at a time that Saudi Arabia is cajoling fellow GCC states into moving from a council to a union to bolster the ability of the conservative Gulf monarchies to confront Iran and prevent the Arab uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa from further encroaching on their fiefdoms.
Persistent reports suggest that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the first Gulf state to have virtually run out of oil that last year brutally squashed a popular revolt with the assistance of the kingdom and the UAE, will declare a union at a GCC summit scheduled to be held in Riyadh later this month.
Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, in a speech this week to a GCC youth conference delivered on his behalf by his deputy cautioned that "cooperation and coordination between the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in its current format may not be enough to confront the existing and coming challenges, which require developing Gulf action into an acceptable federal format. The Gulf union, when it is realized, God willing, will yield great benefits for its peoples, such as in foreign policy with the presence of a supreme Gulf committee coordinating foreign policy decisions that reorders group priorities and realizes group interests," he said.
The Riyadh summit is expected to discuss the outline of a union first proposed by Saudi King Abdullah last December. The Saudis, fearful that Bahrain’s rebellious Shiite Muslim majority could spark further unrest in their predominantly Shiite, restive, oil-rich Eastern Province, envision a GCC political union in which they would be the major power that would adopt joint foreign and defence policies.
Bahraini security forces clash almost daily with Shiite protesters despite last year’s crackdown which pushed demonstrators out of the island capital’s main square. Bahraini opposition forces fear that a union with the kingdom will further strengthen hardliners in the ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa family and open the door to a permanent presence of Saudi troops on the island.
A Gulf union would also bolster royal resistance in some states like the UAE to political liberalization and greater rights as embodied in the Qatari decision to legalize trade unions. Qatar has consistently charted its own course that has put it at odds with the Saudis. Qatar has backed in various countries in revolt the Muslim Brotherhood, a group deeply distrusted by the kingdom, while the Saudis have supported the more conservative Salafis.
GCC states have also failed to achieve unanimity on a wide range of other issues including monetary union, the building of a causeway linking Qatar and Bahrain and security front information sharing as well as the creation of a central command.
The failure to cooperate more closely on security prompted by mutual distrust as well as lack of confidence in US reliability has led to the recent scuppering of the installation of a joint missile shield as a defence against Iran.
For its part, Qatar, by hosting the 2022 World Cup, the world’s largest sporting event, and bidding for various other big ticket tournaments has opened itself to international scrutiny as well as demands from various groups to liberalize so that it as a global hub can accommodate issues such as alcohol and sexual diversity that go against the region’s conservative grain. A GCC political union could complicate the Qatari balancing act.
The Qatari union concession came as a six-month ultimatum by the International Trade Union Confederations (ITUC) that the Gulf state legalize unions and ensure that labour conditions meet international standards came to an end. The ITUC, which represents 175 million workers in 153 countries, had threatened Qatar with a global campaign that would denounce under the slogan, 'No World Cup in Qatar without labour rights,' the Gulf state as a slave driver.
The ITUC had charged earlier in a report that the working conditions of migrant workers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were "inhuman." Entitled ‘Hidden faces of the Gulf miracle,’ the multi-media report demanded that Qatar prove that migrant workers building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup were not subject to inhuman conditions.
Qatari media quoted Labour Undersecretary Hussain Al Mulla as saying that the country’s emir was considering the plan to establish an independent Qatari-led labour committee to represent workers’ interests and an abolition of the sponsorship system that would stop short of allowing foreigners to freely change jobs.
The authorities have recently abandoned the requirement that foreign workers surrender their passports to their Qatari employers. Mr. Al Mulla said the plan had already been endorsed by the Qatari prime minister. It was not immediately clear if the Qatari moves would satisfy the ITUC.
“We wanted to set up the labour committee to help employees and lift off the pressure we and other Gulf countries have been under from several organisations. We are often asked about the non-existence of labour unions to defend labourers in Qatar. We had a labour committee during the days of oil companies. However, the situation in the Gulf is somewhat different because there are few Qataris who are labourers,” Mr. Al Mulla said. He said foreigners would have the right to vote in the committee but would not be able to become board members.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Soccer meets politics at Doha’s Mohammed Abdul Wahhab Mosque
Qatar’s increasing engagement in European soccer and international sport is just one leg in the small Gulf State’s high-risk attempts to position itself as a global player ‘on the right side of history’. But the accompanying social and political changes also spark local opposition in a conservative culture, James M. Dorsey writes in his second analysis on the Gulf State’s growing influence in international sport.
By James M. Dorsey
20 April 2012
Print version
A multi-domed, sand-coloured,... more
By James M. Dorsey
20 April 2012
Print version
A multi-domed, sand-coloured, architectural marvel, Doha’s newest and biggest mosque, symbolizes both Qatar’s bold storm into the 21st century and the pitfalls that that march entails. It’s not the mosque itself that raises eyebrows but its naming after an 18th century warrior priest, Sheikh Mohammed Abdul Wahhab,
the founder of Islam’s most puritan sect
Ironically, the mosque owes its naming to the debate Qatar’s winning of the right to host the 2022 World Cup has sparked. It is a debate that goes to the heart of the energy-rich Gulf state’s identity and the place its ruler, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al
Thani, wants to carve out for his tiny city-state.
The World Cup constitutes a centrepiece of a strategy that seeks to reshape the identity of the world’s only state outside of Saudi Arabia that adheres to Wahhabism, one of Islam’s most austere and restrictive interpretations of Islam; position Qatar as a global player capable of punching above its weight; create opportunities to leverage its enormous wealth in a bid to reduce its reliance on
the export of one commodity; and enhance its security by establishing mutually beneficial relations with friend and foe and ensuring that it is at the cutting edge of history.
The sports leg of Qatar’s broader, high-risk geo-political, conomic and media strategy – involving the creation of a world class airline, Qatar Airways; Al Jazeera as a cutting edge global broadcaster; a far more liberal interpretation of Wahhabism than that of Saudi Arabia and support for many of the popular uprisings
sweeping the Middle East and North Africa – is emerging as a driver of imminent restructuring of the region’s soccer landscape as well as of social change.
To achieve his goal, Emir Hamad has embarked on a buying spree of European soccer assets such as Paris Saint Germain and top league European broadcast rights as well as big ticket sponsorship agreements with the likes of FC Barcelona and the Tour de France, multiple bids for the hosting of international sports tournaments and the construction of world class infrastructure at a cost of tens of billions of dollar.
The strategy, which has exposed Qatar to an unprecedented degree of international scrutiny, has already succeeded in putting Qatar with a population of some 1.7 million of which some two thirds are expatriates on the global map. Doha’s massive
international airport is even before its completion an international hub connecting the world’s seven continents. Al Jazeera competes with the BBC as the world’s foremost global broadcaster while Qatari businessmen are beginning to reap benefits in terms of business opportunities from their country’s investment in sports. Doha is a sought after venue for disputing parties such as the United States and the Taliban, bitterly divided
Palestinian factions and warring parties in Sudan, to find a way to bridge their differences.
It is a strategy that envisions cost outstripping material benefit for years to come with some individual components producing tangible results quicker than others. In many ways however, the intangibles – regional and political change, global positioning and the benefits of being on the right side of history – are as if not more important than a bookkeeper’s calculation of outlays and revenues.
Sparking opposition in the emir’s backyard
Yet, it is those intangibles that are sparking opposition in Emir Hamad’s own backyard to the social and economic changes necessary to transform Qatar into a global sports hub and
the political and diplomatic path on which the Gulf state has embarked that is likely to produce a region very different from the one conservative Wahhabis envision. These intangibles challenge a religious and cultural environment that discourages women’s
involvement in sports, often sees Western-style entertainment and fun as irreligious, opposes the kind of political change sweeping the Middle East and North Africa and favours government and society’s uncompromising adherence to Islamic law.
In the latest spat, conservative Qataris, including members of the royal family, quietly backed by Saudi Arabia have challenged the emir’s authority to allow the sale of alcohol and pork to non-Muslims. The conservative opposition has already prompted the ban of alcohol on a man-made island largely frequented by expatriates, a decision to make Arabic rather than English the language of instruction in education and a boycott of Qatar Airways. So far both sides have scored points. Sports has been exempted from the imposition of Arabic as the language of instruction while the naming of the mosque after Sheikh Mohammed throws a bone to the conservatives albeit one that is unlikely to satisfy them.
Beyond forging a national identity, sports serves also as an effort to pre-empt the kind of youth-led rebellion that has been rocking much of the region for the past 16 months. “Our goal is to create a dialogue that resonates with and talks to the youth. This is an opportunity to inspire and engage young people…. Sports are at
the heart of Qatar’s development… Sports like education and arts are part of our national identity,” Noora Al Mannai, CEO of Qatar’s bid to win the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games, told a recent brainstorm in Qatar designed to define the role
of government, NGOs and business in sports. She described “empowering young people” as one reason for the bid alongside Qatar’s efforts to mediate conflicts and reduce regional obesity and diabetes levels.
Sport as a trigger for social change
Nonetheless, sports are likely to spark a social revolution of sorts as long as the emir is able to keep the conservatives in check. For one, it is forcing Qatar to become the first wealthy Gulf state dependent on expatriate labour to significantly improve
working conditions and the legal environment of expatriate workers in line with international standards. It is however not clear yet whether that will also mean legalizing the existence of trade unions.
With international trade unions threatening a global campaign under the slogan 'No World Cup in Qatar without labour rights,' Qatar has further vowed to ensure that contractors involved in preparations for the 2022 World Cup will adhere to international labour laws.
Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee Secretary General Hassan Al Thawadi conceded early this year that "major sporting events shed a spotlight on conditions in countries. There are labour issues here in the country, but Qatar is committed to reform. We will require that contractors impose a clause to ensure that
international labour standards are met. Sport and football in particular, is a very powerful force. Certainly we can use it for the benefit of the region."
Qatar and other oil-rich Gulf states have long been targeted by labour organizations for their treatment of particularly unskilled and low-skilled workers. Qatar like the UAE and others in the Gulf operates a sponsorship program under which all foreign
workers have to have a local sponsor who can make seeking alternative employment or another sponsor difficult and who often retains the worker’s passport on employment. Trade unionists argue that the lack of a minimum wage further enhances exploitation of labour.
The issue of workers’ rights touches a raw nerve in countries like Qatar and the UAE where the local population constitutes a minority. Gulf states are concerned that improving labour conditions would not only have economic consequences but also
give foreigners a greater stake in a society which ensures they are forced to leave the country once their contract has ended.
Qatar’s employment of sports to project itself internationally coupled with pressure from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also prompted Qatar to field women’s athletes for the first time in its history at this year’s London Olympics. Qatar
alongside Saudi Arabia, which is still struggling with how to respond to the IOC, and Brunei, is the only country never to have been represented by women at an international tournament. To be fair, women in Qatar, in contrast to their sisters in Saudi Arabia, are by and large subject to far less restrictions.
Increasing professionalization and commercialization in the region
Finally, in a part of the world where sports and particularly soccer are often a battlefield for political, ethnic, religious and gender rights, Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup has sparked a growing push towards professionalization,
commercialization and the creation of a proper football industry as a key to unlocking economic opportunity.
For many in the region, last year’s Asia Cup final in Doha, in which half of the competing teams hailed from the Middle East with not one reaching the semi-finals, constituted a wake-up call. It is an experience, Middle Eastern leaders and soccer
officials do not want repeated at the Qatar World Cup.
"Something is moving," says Santino Saguto, an Italian soccer management consultant based in Dubai. "Qatar 2022 has prompted the region to discuss ways to create value. The leagues, the football associations and the media are starting to buy into the concept. That's how it started in Europe."
The UAE took a first step a few years ago when for the first time it marketed the rights to broadcast its league matches – a key step in generating revenue and creating value. The UAE example is reportedly being discussed by Saudi Arabia, the region's most
important league beyond Egypt.
That is not to say that the UAE's blazing of the trail is not without its birth pangs. Commercial broadcasters charge that state-owned networks distort competition by paying exorbitant amounts for the exclusive right to broadcast major football events.
They point to Al Jazeera's clinching of the right to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups for an undisclosed amount believed to be in excess of US$3 billion. Abu Dhabi Media Company, owned by the royal family, was moreover awarded the
exclusive rights to air the English Premier League in the UAE.
________________________________________
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog,
The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Bahrain’s 10:0 against Indonesia puts both nations in the political hot seat
By James M. Dorsey
Bahrain’s stunning 10:0 thrashing this week of Indonesia in a World Cup qualifier... more
By James M. Dorsey
Bahrain’s stunning 10:0 thrashing this week of Indonesia in a World Cup qualifier threatens to damage the campaign of the country’s football czar, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, to be elected head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and has put the careers of prominent soccer managers and executives in the firing line as world soccer body FIFA investigates possible match fixing.
The investigation kick starts former German police chief and Interpol director Ralf Mutschke’s new job as FIFA security chief, which includes the fight against corruption and match-fixing.
FIFA described the Bahraini victory which failed to ensure that the Gulf state advances to the fourth and final Asian qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup as “unusual.”
In addition to having to make up for a nine-goal deficit, which it did with its defeat of Indonesia, Bahrain also needed Qatar to lose its last match. But by scoring an 83rd-minute equalizer to draw 2-2 with Iran, Qatar ensured that it rather than Bahrain would advance to the final round.
All in all, Indonesia has lost all five of its previous group matches, conceding 16 goals while scoring just three.
FIFA, in a bid to appear impartial and not further tarnish Bahrain Football Association (BFA) president Sheikh Salman’s election campaign, described its investigation as “routine,” adding that the probe was justified "given the unusual outcome against results expectation and head-to-head history, and in the interests of maintaining unequivocal confidence in our game."
The allegation of match-fixing adds another layer of controversy to Sheikh Salman’s campaign given his backing last year of the arrest, torture and/or firing of 150 athletes and sports officials, including several national soccer team players on charges of involvement in anti-government protests.
Speaking in London, FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein said the outcome of the Bahrain-Indonesia match “might just be a coincidence, however there might be something behind it." Prince Ali, a proponent for greater transparency within FIFA, noted that match fixers were often “a step ahead” of those seeking to safeguard the integrity of the beautiful game. "We will have to see what the investigation comes out with,” he said.
The AFC said in a statement that it supported the FIFA probe and would "cooperate closely with the world football governing body in the investigation."
Bahrain’s English coach Peter Taylor is likely to move into the fire line if it emerges that the match against Indonesia was fixed. Mr. Taylor was criticized last year for taking up the job in a country where several national team players were banned and mistreated as part of the 150 sports people penalized for demonstrating against the government. Mr. Taylor somewhat callously at the time justified accepting the job by saying: "I am just a football manager. Since I've been here there have been more problems in England than there have been in Bahrain."
Bahrain has historically had close games with Indonesia, having won two, drawn two and lost two prior to Wednesday's game. Bahrain had scored nine goals in those matches and conceded seven.
Indonesia was disadvantaged during the match after its goalkeeper, Samsidar, was sent off the pitch with a red card just two minutes into the game and because it was fielding several inexperienced international players after suspending others who play for clubs in the breakaway Indonesian Super League.
As a result, it is hardly surprising that the probe shines the spotlight on the Indonesian football association (PSSI), which like Indonesia itself has been wracked by corruption.
PSSI chairman Djohar Arifin Husin added fuel to the fire when he was quoted by Indonesian news website Inilah.com on his way back to Jakarta from Bahrain as charging that the national team could “no longer depend on the senior players. They are all mafia who have been contaminated with the way previous PSSI officials ran football, fixing matches as they see fit.”
Amid denunciations by former players, Mr. Husin has since denied making the remark and accused Inilah.com of defaming him.
Mr. Husin nonetheless appeared to leave the door open to possible foul play charging that controversial Lebanese referee Andre El Haddad had made “lots of questionable calls…., so that should be investigated.”
Mr. El Haddad last year took charge of a qualifier between China and Singapore that saw him make several hotly contested decisions. China won 2-1.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Lebanese victory boosts national unity and spotlights Gulf problems
By James M. Dorsey
Lebanon advanced for the first time in its soccer history to the fourth and final Asian... more
By James M. Dorsey
Lebanon advanced for the first time in its soccer history to the fourth and final Asian qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup despite losing this week to the United Arab Emirates. In doing so, the Lebanese squad cemented soccer’s role as a rallying point for a country divided and scarred by years of bitter civil war afraid that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s sectarian-tainted brutal crackdown could spill into the streets of Lebanese cities.
In a country where almost every facet of life is defined by sectarian fault lines, Lebanon’s advance had people from all walks of life glued to television sets and computer screens in offices, university lecture halls, sports bars and living rooms. Schools closed early for students to be able to watch the match.
The Lebanese success even if it was by default strengthened soccer’s unifying role two months after the national team’s defeat of South Korea in December brought tens of thousands into the streets of the Lebanese capital Beirut waving the country's red and white flag with a green cedar in the middle. As Lebanon scored against South Korea sectarian chants in Beirut’s Cite Sportive stadium were replaced with roars of "Minshan Allah, Libnan yallah'' - "For God's Sake, Lebanon Come On'' as fans belonging to the country’s multiple sects and political groups united behind their national squad.
Nonetheless, fighting last month between supporters of Mr. Assad, and those who oppose his regime in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli signaled just how fragile that sense of national unity is. Three people were killed and many more were injured in 24 hours of fighting.
Meanwhile, in a weird twist of events, Lebanese fans attending Wednesday’s match in Abu Dhabi against the UAE spotlighted a key weakness of soccer in the Gulf that has fuelled some of the criticism of Qatar’s winning in late 2010 of the right to host the 2022 World Cup: the lack of a fan base eager to come to the stadium to cheer their team.
The estimated 6,000 Lebanese fans outnumbered the Emiratis on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi’s Al Nahyan Stadium. To be sure with an estimated 100,000 Lebanese expats resident in the UAE many of the Lebanese did not have to travel far for the match.
Nonetheless, news reports said that Lebanese supporters had come from as far as Brazil and Britain to support their team.
The Gulf News reported that Emiratis boycotted the match because their team did not stand a chance irrespective of whether it defeated Lebanon or not of reaching the World Cup finals as it had done once before in 1990.
While that may be true it evades the structural problem with filling stadiums in a part of the world where the local population often constitutes a minority of the total population. In the UAE, locals account for at best 15% of the population whose vast majority are expatriates.
A recent survey by Abu Dhabi daily The National concluded that the Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium of the emirate’s Al Jazira Sports & Culture club was among the UAE’s most popular sport venues. The stadium owes it popularity only in part to its futuristic design that lacks a runway track and allows fans to be seated closer to the field.
Equally important is the fact that Al Jazira has some of the highest attendance figures in the Gulf because its former chief executive officer, Englishman Phil Anderton, a former marketeer for Scottish Rugby, Coca Cola and Procter & Gamble, was willing to go places others in the Gulf shied away from because they were afraid of upsetting the fragile demographic apple cart.
In a bid to raise match attendance and integrate his club with the community, Mr. Anderton reached out to the expatriate population – a move Gulf clubs controlled by the region’s ruling families have avoided out of fear that this would give foreigners a stake that could encourage them over time to demand greater rights.
Mr. Anderton’s strategy worked. Within a year attendance figures at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium had quadrupled drawing a record crowd of 28,164 for a match against Al Wasl. Redevelopment of the stadium has increased its capacity from 15,000 to 42,000. Ironically, the increased number of expats has sparked greater enthusiasm among Emiratis.
"The number of Al Jazira's home fans is really impressive as they really get a good crowd. You enjoy the game thrice as much than the stadium being more than half empty. Also, we see a lot of expats at their games so it's great that they are showing an interest in the Pro League,” The National quoted rival Al Nasr fan Faisal Hamadi as saying.
“We looked at who was coming and who wasn't and why. There was a lack of awareness and a range of misconceptions - they thought it was amateur or for Emiratis only. From this we developed a brand position to encourage people interested in football to come to the club. With the transitory nature few felt a connection so we are trying to unite the city through the club with the tag line ‘Pride of Abu Dhabi'. We developed a full marketing plan with advertising and PR as well as going into local schools and communities to try and change perceptions and raise awareness,” Mr. Anderson said in an interview last year.
“We showcased our star players and organized tournaments for the community in our facilities. Once we encouraged people to come to the games and feel part of the club we had to deliver a product. We needed to make sure that we treated people well when they came, with food in a clean well sign-posted stadium and then we needed to put on a good show where football is at the core of other entertainment options - it's more an American model,” he added.
Mr. Anderton’s approach broke with Gulf practice in more than one way. Arguing that teams can only exploit their home advantage if they have the crowd cheering them on during matches, he also argued in favor of turning clubs dependent on the politically motivated largesse of their royal and tribal owners into commercially viable entities. “Historically clubs here didn't have the requirement to go into the commercial side of things but we want to develop sponsorship, merchandise, ticketing and hospitality from using our facilities 365 days a year via leasing in order to set down a sustainable business model, which inevitably leads to success on the field,” Mr. Anderton said.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
AFC presidential election bears risk of renewed embarrassment
By James M. Dorsey
With campaigning started for the election of a new president of the Asian Football... more
By James M. Dorsey
With campaigning started for the election of a new president of the Asian Football Confederation to succeed disgraced Qatari national Mohammed Bin Hammam, soccer officials are concerned that the candidacy of Bahrain Football Association president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa could prove to be another embarrassment.
Sheikh Salman alongside former UAE soccer federation head Yousuf al Serkal have let it be known that they would be vying for the top Asian soccer job.
Zhang Jilong of China who took over as acting head of the AFC after Mr. Bin Hammam was barred last July for life from involvement in professional soccer by world soccer body FIFA on charges of corruption is also believed to be vying for the job.
"I am interested in becoming president permanently on the condition that I am recognised by all my friends and brothers on the executive committee, as well as the other 46 members' association," the South China Morning Post quoted Mr. Jilong as saying.
"We need to be one family, as brothers, for we are on one boat sailing towards the future. If I become president permanently, I wish to work for the solidarity and development of Asian football," he added.
The AFC has until late May to elect a new president to succeed Mr. Bin Hammam who is legally suspended as president pending his appeal in the Court for Arbitration of Sport (CAS) against the FIFA ban.
Mr. Bin Hammam has denied allegations that he had last year bribed officials of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to support his failed bid to defeat long standing FIFA head Sepp Blatter in a presidential election.
Sheikh Salman is a controversial candidate because of his backing last year of the arrest, torture and/or firing of 150 athletes and sports officials, including several national soccer team players on charges of involvement in anti-government protests.
"I have great confidence in getting great support from many parties, I received during launching the (past) electoral battle with Mohamed Bin Hammam," Sheikh Salman told sports television channel El Dawry and El Kass.
"We have received promises of support by many Asian federations to give me her voice in the election, and I have to speak with Mohamed Bin Hammam, where he stressed his support for me and his blessing," Sheikh Salman added.
Senior Asian soccer officials said rather than backing the government crackdown, Sheikh Salman, a member of Bahrain's minority Sunni Muslim royal family, should have conducted an independent investigation into the allegations. "Sheikh Salman carries too much baggage," one official said.
In response to a FIFA query last year, Sheikh Salman flatly denied that any soccer player had been detained or otherwise affected for participation in the protests. Surprisingly, there is no public record of FIFA challenging Sheikh Salman's assertion. On the contrary, FIFA last October Sheikh Salman to its 2014 World Cup committee.
Bahrain backed by the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has asserted that the demonstrations were instigated by Shiite Iran in a bid to sow sectarian discord and destabilize the predominantly Shiite Gulf island.
The crackdown a year ago involved the imposition of martial law for nearly three months, the sacking of some 2,000 people from government jobs and detention of 3,000 others as well as the of ordering military trials for several hundred.
Among the athletes put on trial were brothers Alaa and Mohammed Hubail, who are national soccer team stars. Alaa has said that he and his brother had been abused and humiliated during their detention. ,
Another national soccer team player, defender Sayed Mohamed Adnan, fled to Australia where he joined Brisbane Roar after having spent three month in prison during which he asserts that he was beaten and tortured.
Bahrain halted in December legal proceedings against the athletes and sports officials in a bid to improve the government’s tarnished image after state-run Bahrain News Agency reported that King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa had forgiven them. A military court a week earlier sentenced Bahrain national soccer team goalkeeper Ali Said, bodybuilder and several times Asian championship gold medallist Tareq al-Fursani, and national basketball team player Hassan al-Dirazi to a year in prison for participating in the protests.
Despite being widely viewed as a former associate of Mr. Bin Hammam, Mr. Al Serkal has the reputation of being clean and untainted by shady dealings. Hoping to capitalize about concerns about Sheikh Salman, Mr. Al Serkal has been positioning himself as the Arab consensus candidate.
“I am very clear about one thing, and that is the need for this part of Asia to have a consensus candidate rather than two contesting for the post of president. There has been an intention from Sheikh Salman and we need to ensure there is one candidate from the Gulf and Arab world for next year's elections," the Dubai-based Gulf News quoted Mr. Al Serkal in October as saying.
Japan’s Kohzo Tashima, was last year reported to want to run for the job despite the fact that he enjoys little support in the region.
Beyond coming at a time that soccer's governing bodies have been involved in some of the worst scandals in their history, the presidential election comes as the AFC has been a leader in tackling thorny issues such as the ban on Muslim women players wearing a headdress in line with their religious beliefs during matches and efforts to further grassroots soccer.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB), which governs the rules of association soccer, is scheduled to meet on March 3 to discuss an AFC proposal to allow a headdress for observant Muslim women that meets safety standards as well as the female players’ religious requirement.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Qatari doubts about alcohol boosted by unlikely allies: World Cup hosts Brazil and Russia
By James M. Dorsey
With alcohol becoming a domestic political issue in the Gulf state of Qatar, host of the... more
By James M. Dorsey
With alcohol becoming a domestic political issue in the Gulf state of Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup, Qatari officials are certainly taking heart from world soccer body FIFA’s battle with the non-Muslim hosts of the next two tournaments, Brazil and Russia, over the role of alcohol in the world’s largest sporting events.
That however may be premature. The outcome of FIFA’s dispute with Brazil, host of the 2014 World Cup, and Russia where the tournament will be held in 2018, is certain to shape the soccer body’s certainly forthcoming debate with Qatar.
Unlike Qatar, which restricts the consumption and sale of alcohol on religious grounds, Brazil and Russia have outlawed its sale at sporting events in recent years in a bid to control crowds and prevents riots and violence.
With FIFA insisting in the words of its General Secretary Jerome Valcke that “alcoholic drinks are part of the FIFA World Cup…that’s something we won’t negotiate” due to its obligations to sponsors that include brewer Budweiser, a compromise may already be in the making. Whatever that compromise is, it will certainly inform debate in Qatar as well as between the Gulf state whose cultural history is rooted in a puritan interpretation of Islam and FIFA.
Alcohol and particularly beer battles increasingly seem to be a feature in the walk-up to a World Cup. German brewers revolted in 2006 because their beers were initially excluded until Anheuser-Busch agreed to sell local beer Bitburger alongside its own. “We’re not talking about alcohol, we’re talking about beer,” Mr. Valcke said in Brasilia, a distinction that certainly will be rejected in Qatar.
Qatar-based controversial Islamic television preacher Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi who commands a following of tens of millions and has a weekly show on the Gulf state’s Al Jazeera television network issued a religious edict in 2008 that Muslims could consume beverages with up to 0.5% alcohol.
The ruling was however rejected by supporters of Wahhabism, the puritan version of Islam common to Qatar and Saudi Arabia even if it’s more liberal interpretation in Qatar is a far cry from its severe application in Saudi Arabia. The ruling moreover doesn’t do much for beer brewers whose products have an alcohol content of more than four per cent.
An emailed FIFA statement on this week’s first meeting in Brazilia of the 2014 Cup’s Local Organizing Committee made no mention of the alcohol issue, but FIFA’s insistence that Brazil overturn its ban has sparked debate in the Latin American country as officials seek to find a resolution.
While some members of the Brazilian Congress and judiciary are campaigning for the ban on alcohol to remain in place, FIFA said in a statement sent to CNN that it believes that the law instituting the ban would soon be changed.
"The selling of beer in stadiums is part of the fan culture and will also be part of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It is important to note that the sale of alcohol will be limited to beer only as was done at all previous FIFA World Cups. We are confident that we will be able to solve the very few open matters and close the chapter of the 2014 Bill by March 2012, so we can then focus on the operational aspects of staging the FIFA Confederations Cup in 18 months from now and then the 2014 FIFA World Cup,” the statement said.
Brazilian Minister for Sports Aldo Rebelo, speaking to CNN acknowledged that Brazil in its agreement to host the World Cup had “agreed with all the requirements… We need to move on and fasten up and I am confident that by March we can complete this," the minister said.
Similarly, Russian soccer federation president Sergey Fursenko called in recent days for the reinstitution of beer advertisements and brews in Russian stadiums. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week told a soccer fan that “when the decision was made about stadiums, it came from the best of intentions. OK, we’ll return to it again and think about it.”
Qatar, a controversial choice for the World Cup because of fan objections to some of its cultural mores, a lack of a soccer tradition and blistering summer temperatures, has sought to pre-empt a debate about alcohol by announcing that it would create fan zones where alcohol can be consumed.
The offer has so far silenced the Gulf state’s non-Qatari critics but features in a domestic debate that recently led to a ban on alcohol in restaurants on a man-made island that is home to and frequented by expatriates. The debate has also sparked online calls for a boycott of state-owned Qatar Airways because it serves alcohol on board and operates a shop in the capital Doha that sells alcohol and pork to non-Muslims.
Qatar’s drinking zone solution to the alcohol problem could well serve as a model for a compromise with Brazil and Russia. Alternatively, an agreement with the two non-Muslim nations involving a different solution could spark a revisit of the Qatari approach and fuel opposition to Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani’s efforts to position the Gulf state as a global sports hub and make sports a pillar of its national identity.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Qatar pledges to adhere to international labour laws in walk-up to 2022 World Cup
By James M. Dorsey
Qatar, with trade union leaders set for a second round of discussions with world soccer... more
By James M. Dorsey
Qatar, with trade union leaders set for a second round of discussions with world soccer body FIFA about questionable labour conditions in the Gulf state, has vowed to ensure that contractors involved in preparations for the 2022 World Cup will adhere to international labour laws.
An official of the trade union, Building and Wood Workers International, said the unions were scheduled to meet again with FIFA in late January, as a follow-up to a meeting in November with FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
FIFA pledged after that meeting to help bolster the rights of migrant workers building World Cup infrastructure in Qatar in a bid to fend off a global trade union campaign that would denounce under the slogan, 'No World Cup in Qatar without labour rights,' the Gulf state as a slave driver. The unions have given FIFA six months to ensure that Qatar meets international labour standards.
Qatar is the first Middle Eastern state to have won the right to host the world’s largest sporting event.
The union’s message to FIFA appears to have not been lost on Qatar even though union officials said they could not operate in the Gulf state, which has no unions of its own.
Speaking at Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in the Qatari capital of Doha, Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee Secretary General Hassan Al Thawadi conceded that "major sporting events shed a spotlight on conditions in countries. There are labour issues here in the country, but Qatar is committed to reform. We will require that contractors impose a clause to ensure that international labour standards are met. Sport and football in particular, is a very powerful force. Certainly we can use it for the benefit of the region."
Qatar is embarking on a mega infrastructure program in advance of the World Cup involving an $11 billion new international airport, a $5.5 billion deep water seaport, a $1 billion transport corridor in Doha, expenditure of $20 billion on roads and $4 billion for the construction of nine new stadiums and renovation of three existing ones.
Mr. Thawadi said at a brainstorm in Doha earlier this month on the role of government, business and NGOs in sports that the Gulf state would award the management contract for oversight of the infrastructure program in the first quarter of this year
The International Trade Union Confederations (ITUC), which represents 175 million workers in 153 countries, charged in a report earlier this year that the working conditions of migrant workers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were "inhuman."
Entitled ‘Hidden faces of the Gulf miracle,’ the multi-media report demanded that Qatar prove that migrant workers building infrastructure for the tournament are not subject to inhuman conditions.
It said that the working and living conditions of mostly Asian migrant labour in Qatar are unsafe and unregulated.
“A huge migrant labour force, with very little rights, no access to any unions, very unsafe practices and inhuman living conditions will be literally putting their lives on the line to deliver the 2022 World Cup,” ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow said at the time of the report’s release.
Qatar and other oil-rich Gulf states have long been targeted by labour organizations for their treatment of particularly unskilled and low-skilled workers. Qatar like the UAE and others in the Gulf operates a sponsorship program under which all foreign workers have to have a local sponsor who can make seeking alternative employment or another sponsor difficult and who often retains the worker’s passport on employment. Trade unionists argue that the lack of a minimum wage further enhances exploitation of labour.
The issue of workers’ rights touches a raw nerve in countries like Qatar and the UAE where the local population constitutes a minority. Gulf states are concerned that improving labour conditions would not only have economic consequences but also give foreigners a greater stake in a society which ensures they are forced to leave the country once their contract has ended.
Pressure on Qatar from FIFA and the trade unions comes at a time that the Gulf state is enthralled in a debate about its national identity in which conservative and nationalist forces object to concessions being made to foreigners and fans expected to attend the World Cup such as allowing the sale of alcohol and pork. Qatar, which permits the serving of alcohol to foreigners in hotels and on board state-owned Qatar Airways, has said it would create free zones during the tournament in which fans would be allowed to consume alcohol.
A trade union campaign would tarnish Qatar’s international image carefully crafted with the launch in the 1990s of the Al Jazeera television network, the creation with Qatar Airways as a world class airline and the positioning of the Gulf state as an international sports hub with the hosting of tournaments like the World Cup and call into question FIFA’s vote in favour of Qatar. Qatar is preparing to also bid for the 2020 Olympic Games and the 2019 World Athletics Championship.
An international labour campaign would moreover revive some of the controversy that has overshadowed Qatar’s success in becoming the first Middle Eastern state to host a World Cup.
That success has been mired by allegations of corruption that so far have proven unsubstantiated; the downfall of Mohammed Bin Hammam, the Qatari national who was FIFA vice-president and has been suspended as president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on charges of bribery, and concern that Qatar’s searing summer temperatures will impede performance during the tournament.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Debate questions emir’s powers to shape Qatar’s positioning as a sports hub and sponsor of revolts
By James M. Dorsey
Qatar’s debate about allowing alcohol and the sale of pork amounts to far more than a... more
By James M. Dorsey
Qatar’s debate about allowing alcohol and the sale of pork amounts to far more than a discussion about adherence to the energy-rich Gulf state’s constitution and laws; it is a debate about the powers of the country’s ruler and its national identity.
The outcome of the debate will not only determine the future of Qatar’s effort to become a global sports hub – a key pillar of the national identity Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani is seeking to shape – but also its positioning as a forward-looking sponsor of change in a region stretching from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Gulf that is wracked by anti-government protests and convoluted transitions to more open societies.
It is a debate that is being closely monitored by critics of world soccer body FIFA’s decision to award Qatar the hosting of the 2022 World Cup; a wide-range of sports officials and athletes who anticipate a Qatari bid for the 2020 Olympic Games and the 2019 World Athletics Championships; and policy makers and pundits across the globe.
Caught on camera by CBS News in April of last year, US President Barak Obama described Sheikh Hamad as “a big booster of democracy all throughout the Middle East,” but noted that “he himself is not reforming significantly.” Mr. Obama suggested that Qataris with a per capita annual income of $145,000 felt little urge to rock the boat. Emir Hamad has since Mr. Obama’s quip announced elections next year for a royal advisory body. Qatar’s debate on moral mores nontheless appears to contradict Mr. Obama’s assessment.
The debate attracted international attention following last month’s unexplained banning of alcohol in restaurants on Qatar’s man-made island, The Pearl, which says it aims to “redefine an entire nation” and is popular with Qatar's growing expatriate community, as well as online calls by Qatari nationals for a boycott of state-owned Qatar Airways because of its serving on-board of alcohol and recent introduction of the sale of pork in a shop it owns in the capital Doha.
The debate about the country’s national identity is particularly sensitive given that Qatari nationals account for approximately only one quarter to one third of the country’s 1.7 million inhabitants with foreign labour and expatriates forming a majority at a time that the relationship between rulers, governments and the public across the Middle East and North Africa is being redefined.
“Our goal is to create a dialogue that resonates with and talks to the youth. This is an opportunity to inspire and engage young people…. Sports are at the heart of Qatar’s development… Sports like education and arts are part of our national identity,” Noora Al Mannai, CEO of Qatar’s bid to win the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games, told a recent brainstorm in Qatar designed to define the role of government, NGOs and business in sports.
Ms. Al Mannai said “empowering young people” was one reason for the bid alongside Qatar’s efforts to mediate conflicts and reduce regional obesity and diabetes levels.
The ban of alcohol on The Pearl extends beyond public venues to the kitchen, where one resident, Jenifer Fenton, writing on Arab News Blog, said it could also not be used for cooking.
Restaurateurs and residents have yet to receive a justification for the ban. The ban does not affect major hotels in Doha that are allowed to sell alcohol to non-Muslims or the Qatar Airways shop that sells alcohol and pork to licensed foreign nationals for private consumption.
Speculation about the reasoning includes the ruler and the government wanting to project a more pious image in advance of the country’s first election of a royal advisory body to rumours of a financial dispute between the government and the resort’s developers.
Qatar has long sought to differentiate its interpretation of the teachings of the 18th century puritan warrior priest, Mohammed Abdul Wahhab, from that of strict Saudi Arabia where in contrast to Qatar women are severely restricted and Islamic law is rigorously applied to all not just Muslims and Saudi nationals.
The debate is likely to engender empathy in the Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa as Islamist forces emerge as winners from the popular revolts sweeping the region.
Nonetheless, it has sparked concern among secularists in Tunisia where the Islamist Ennahada party won the first elections following last year’s overthrow of President Zine el Abedine Ben Ali that the country may focus more on relations with the Gulf than on its traditional ties to Europe. Ennahada officials were quick to assert during Sheikh Hamad’s recent visit to Tunisia to mark the first anniversary of the toppling of Mr. Ben Ali that the country would not jeopardize its relations with Europe but was basing its foreign policy on achieving the revolution’s goals.
Qatari critics of alcohol argue that the emir’s tolerance violates the country’s constitutions and laws which do not grant the emir the prerogative to allow its sale or consumption. In doing so, the critics are implicitly sparking a rare debate about the powers of the ruler.
Hassan Al Sayed, a professor of constitutional law and former dean of the College of Law at Qatar University, says according to Ms. Fenton, that there is no Qatari law that allows for the sale of alcohol and that in fact several laws, including the constitution, criminalize it. Even “if there is any decision coming for example from the Emir or any department here (legalizing alcohol)… no in fact, this is not okay and this is against the law,” Ms. Fenton quotes Mr. Al Sayed as saying.
Mr. Al Sayed says that for Qatar to legally allow the sale and consumption of alcohol it must change its constitution, which in article 1 stipulates that “Islam is the State’s religion and the Islamic Sharia is the main source of its legislations.” Mr. Al Sayed argues that the legal ban applies also to free zones the government said it would create for fans attending the 2022 World Cup.
A majority of Qataris is likely to oppose constitutional reform out of fear that the country would lose its Islamic identity, a key element in the national identity it is trying to shape.
Restaurant executives are optimistic that the ban will be lifted and that Qatar is not on the verge of declaring itself dry. The recent resignation of Khalil Sholy, the managing director of United Development Company (UDC), the developer of The Pearl, has fuelled hopes of a resolution.
That however could take several months. UDC said in a statement posted on the Qatar Exchange that Mr. Sholy will retain his powers as managing director and president for three months “to assist the person who will be elected by the board of directors to fill the position.”
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Saudi Arabia embraces Salafism: Countering the Arab uprising?
By James M. Dorsey
SAUDI ARABIA has long been seen as the main backer of... more
By James M. Dorsey
SAUDI ARABIA has long been seen as the main backer of Salafis across the globe. It has always, however, shied away from officially endorsing the Muslim trend that until recently preached a politically quietist return to the way of life at the time of Islam’s first 7th century Caliphs.
If Saudi support and funding of Salafi communities in the past constituted a key but discreet element of its soft power strategy aimed at countering Iran’s perceived revolutionary Islamic appeal, today it serves to counter Islamist forces who trace their roots to the Muslim Brotherhood. It also seeks to curtail the revolutionary zeal of protesters that are clamouring for true democracy rather than cosmetic change. At the same time, it counters idiosyncratic foreign and domestic policies of forward-looking and long-time Saudi rival Qatar - the only other Arab-Muslim nation whose theological origins hark back to the Wahhabi founders of Saudi Arabia.
Qatar is home to Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, an influential Egyptian Muslim brother, and one of the world’s most respected yet controversial Islamic thinkers critical of Saudi Arabia’s puritanic concepts. The Gulf state has further emerged as a champion of revolts in several Arab countries with Bahrain as the notable exception, a media powerhouse thanks to Al Jazeera, and a key US interlocutor in the region.
The change in Saudi tactics highlights the rupture in relations between the kingdom and the Brotherhood more than a decade ago when Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz denounced his erstwhile allies in the wake of the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.
Saudi Arabia welcomed the Muslim Brothers in the 1950s and 1960s as they fled a crackdown in Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt. Many became teachers in their newly found refuge where their political interpretation of Islam cross-fertilised with the ideas of the 18th century cleric-warrior Mohammed Abdul Wahhab whose puritanic views shaped modern Saudi Arabia and inspired Salafism.
It took Prince Nayef, widely viewed as a hard line conservative, months to acknowledge in 2001 that 15 of the 19 perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks had hailed from Saudi Arabia. But once he did, he turned his wrath on the Brotherhood, which decades ago had abandoned violence except in the case of the Palestinian struggle against Israel, but has been the starting point of numerous first generation jihadists.
In an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper, Prince Nayef charged at the time that the Brotherhood was responsible “for most of the problems in the Arab world” and had “done great damage to Saudi Arabia”. The prince acknowledged that whenever they got into difficulty or found their freedom restricted in their own countries, Brotherhood activists found refuge in Saudi Arabia, “which protected their lives” but said that they had “later turned against the kingdom”.
Ten years later, Crown Prince Nayef is leading the kingdom’s embrace of Salafism when it has discarded its non-involvement in politics and has emerged in Egypt’s first post-revolt elections as the country’s second largest political force with a quarter of the votes. Egyptian state-controlled media, citing unnamed Justice Ministry sources, reported that Saudi Arabia had financed the Salafis to the tune of $63 million last year.
Last month Prince Nayef and the kingdom’s mufti and advisor on religious affairs, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Shaikh, a descendant of Mohammed Abdul Wahhab, gave keynote speeches at a conference convened under the title, Salafism: Legal Path, National Demand. The conference constituted a rare occasion on which the kingdom acknowledged Salafism as a full-fledged school of thought within Sunni Islam, though Saudi political and religious discourse had often referred to al-salaf-al-saleh, Prophet Mohammed’s immediate successors who are revered for their piety.
“My brothers, you know that true Salafism is the path whose rules derive from the book of God and the path of the Prophet…This blessed state (Saudi Arabia) has been established along correct Salafi lines since its inception by Imam Mohammed bin Saud and his pact with Imam Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahhab. Saudi Arabia will continue on the upright Salafi path and not flinch from it or back down,” Prince Nayef told the conference participants.
In an apparent response to criticism of Wahhabi and Salafi discrimination of Shiite Muslims, intolerance towards non-Muslims and harsh restrictions of women’s rights, the prince described Salafism as “authentic and contemporary” and an ideology that promotes progress and “peaceful coexistence with others and respect for their rights”.
In a similar vein, Sheikh Abdulaziz said Salafism was “a comprehensive godly path based on moderation and the middle way; it is based on unitarianism and forsakes innovation, superstitions and erroneous things”.
The kingdom’s embracing of Salafism follows the sentencing of Mokhtar al-Hashemi to 30 years in prison on charges of funding terrorism and plotting a coup in cooperation with Al Qaeda in seeking to create an Islamist political party in the kingdom based on Brotherhood thinking.
The question is not whether the Arab revolt will reach the kingdom but how it will progress in Saudi Arabia, which last year witnessed several protests in the predominantly Shiite, oil-rich Eastern Province. In fact in November 2010, a month before the eruption in Tunisia, it had been the scene of anti-corruption demonstrations. The vote for Salafists in Egypt was more a vote against established politics than opting for a Saudi-style system.
Demonstrations last month by groups of activists not only in Shiite Qatif but also in the capital, Riyadh and the Wahhabi stronghold of Buraida, constitute a shot across the bow of the House of Saud. Saudi rulers, by embracing Salafism and adopting the ways and mores of the righteous Caliphs, hope to shield themselves from the regional and global uprising against repressive and failed regimes. It is a gamble whose outcome could have repercussions far beyond the kingdom
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Alcohol ban raises specter of problems for Qatar’s hosting of 2022 World Cup
By James M. Dorsey
A ban on alcohol on Qatar’s man-made The Pearl Qatar island coupled with the naming of a... more
By James M. Dorsey
A ban on alcohol on Qatar’s man-made The Pearl Qatar island coupled with the naming of a large mosque after the founder of a puritan strand of Islam and online protests against various state-owned companies highlights domestic opposition to some of the Gulf state's more forward looking policies as well as freedoms for soccer fans it is expected to host during the 2022 World Cup.
Qatari officials have said that the 500,000 soccer fans expected to descend on their country during the World Cup will be allowed to consume alcohol in designated zones. Alcohol is currently served exclusively in hotels and sold in a Qatar Airways–owned shop only to expatriates who hold a license.
The banning of alcohol on the island, whose restaurants are popular with Qatar's growing expatriate community, was introduced in advance of the Al Kass International Cup, a ten-day
Under-17 soccer tournament, involving top world clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, Brazil's Vasco De Gama (Brazil), Juventus, Ajax, FC Barcelona, Japan's Kashima Antlers and Egypt's, Al Ahly. It also came as senior international figures gathered in Doha at Qatar's invitation to brainstorm over the role of sports in society and what governments, NGO's and the private sector should do to promote sports.
Business at restaurants on the Pearl has dropped as much as 50 percent as a result of the ban. “Obviously the business has dropped; by half… for some restaurants, probably even more,” said Sumeet Jinghan, country manager of Foodmark, whose brands include Carluccio’s, The Meat Company and Mango Tree.
Mr. Jinghan said Foodmark had suspended plans to open two more restaurants and a club on the Pearl, home to an estimated 41,000 residents, until it became clear whether the ban was permanent or not.
The ban did not immediately affect the Al Kass tournament which attracted primarily only local spectators. The competition offers Aspire Qatar, the Gulf state's youth team, whose players include young Qataris as well as youths from Africa, Asia and Latin America selected in a yearly talent search from among some 500,000 aspiring soccer playing kids to compete against some of the world's best teams.
The tournament is one initiative in Qatar's emphasis on sports as a cornerstone of its foreign policy, development and effort to shape the energy-rich nation's national identity at a time that youth-driven popular revolts have toppled the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and pushed embattled autocrats in Syria and Yemen to the brink. Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network has played an important role in the revolts with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accusing it of instigating and encouraging the protests against his regime.
“Our goal is to create a dialogue that resonates with and talks to the youth. This is an opportunity to inspire and engage young people…. Sports are at the heart of Qatar’s development… Sports like education and arts are part of our national identity,” said Noora Al Mannai, CEO of Qatar’s bid to win the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Ms. Al Mannai said “empowering young people” was one reason for the bid alongside Qatar’s efforts to mediate conflicts and reduce regional obesity and diabetes levels.
If sports are for Qatar’s leaders a key tool in forging national identity, banning alcohol is its equivalent for more conservative and nationalist forces in the Gulf state.
"I don't see a reason to have alcohol. It impacts very negatively on locals. Locals are not happy with it," The Wall Street Journal quoted Qatari writer Abdul Aziz Al Mahmoud as saying.
Conservative Qataris worry that an increasing number of their compatriots, often dressed in full-length robes, the Gulf's national dress, drink publicly in hotels and bars. "It is a taboo in Qatar to see somebody wearing the national dress and drinking," said Hassan Al Ibrahim, a Qatari commentator, according to the Journal.
Conservative fears in a nation where locals account for at best one third of the population were further inflamed when the Qatar Distribution Company, a Qatar Airways owned-retail shop, introduced pork alongside the alcohol it was already selling to expatriates. The introduction was one spark of an online call to boycott the airline.
Qatar’s The Peninsula daily reported that a group of some 500 Qataris had called for a boycott of the state-owned airline, a major tool in the positioning of the Gulf state as a global travel hub, in protest against its serving of alcohol on flights, high fares and failure to allocate more jobs to Qatari nationals. The protesters’ campaign featured the Qatar Airways logo with a no entry sign superimposed on it. It followed a similar protest in recent months decrying telecommunications services.
Qatar Airways has declined to comment on why its store had started to sell pork.
"I never thought the day would come that I have to ask the waiter in a restaurant in Qatar what kind of meat is in their burgers," said a Qatari on Twitter.
"Ppl don't get it. Its not about the pork—its about us feeling more & more like a minority—in our own country,” tweeted another Qatari.
The banning of alcohol as well as the shutting down of a weekly party on the Pearl, a development that bills itself as the Arab Riviera; the naming of a mosque in memory of Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, an 18th century warrior priest whose austere, puritan interpretation of Islam life shapes life in Saudi Arabia and inspires Qatari cultural traditions; and the online protests are likely issues that opponents of Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup will seize on in so far failed attempts to get the awarding by world soccer body FIFA reversed.
Al-Wahhab’s puritanism created the cradle of Salafism – an Islamic trend that propagates a return to the way of life at the time of Islam’s first 7th century caliphs and has emerged as a power political force in post-revolt Egypt. Saudi Arabia recently officially embraced Salafism as a key element in its soft power strategy aimed at countering Iran’s perceived revolutionary Islamic appeal as well as the wave of anti-government protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. The embrace also constitutes a response to Qatar’s idiosyncratic foreign and domestic policies.
That response is likely to sharpen the battle lines within Qatar as the Gulf state prepares to host perhaps not only one but two of the world’s biggest sporting events in the next decade.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Labour unions threaten Qatar with global anti-World Cup campaign
By James M. Dorsey
Labour organizations are warning world soccer body FIFA and by extension Qatar that they... more
By James M. Dorsey
Labour organizations are warning world soccer body FIFA and by extension Qatar that they will launch an international campaign to deprive the Gulf state of its hosting of the 2022 World Cup if it fails to get its act together on workers’ rights.
Representatives of international trade unions issued their warning in a letter to FIFA President Sepp Blatter. The letter advised Mr. Blatter that their campaign would be launched with the slogan,
'No World Cup in Qatar without labour rights'.
The letter and a meeting on Thursday with Mr. Blatter follows a union report issued earlier this year that condemned the working conditions of migrant workers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as "inhuman."
Entitled ‘Hidden faces of the Gulf miracle,’ the multi-media report issued in May by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the world’s largest trade union, and Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) demanded that Qatar prove that migrant workers building infrastructure for the tournament are not subject to inhuman conditions.
It charged that the working and living conditions of mostly Asian migrant labour being used to build nine stadiums in 10 years as Qatar seeks to be the first Arab country to host the World Cup are unsafe and unregulated.
“A huge migrant labour force, with very little rights, no access to any unions, very unsafe practices and inhuman living conditions will be literally putting their lives on the line to deliver the 2022 World Cup,” ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow said at the time of the report’s release.
BWI secretary general Ambet Yuson charged that Qatar’s “ability to deliver the World Cup is totally dependent on severe exploitation of migrant labour, which we believe to be barely above forced labour conditions.” Mr. Yuson noted that "just six per cent of the working population of Qatar is Qatari.”
The report stressed that FIFA requires soccer manufacturers to respect workers' rights in its licensing program, but has no such standards for companies building World Cup venues
Qatar expects to invest $88 billion in infrastructure for the games, according to Enrico Grino, Qatar National Bank’s assistant general manager and head of project finance.
The vast majority of Qatar's workforce consists of foreign migrant workers, many of whom hail from South and East Asia. Nepal's Department of Foreign Employment told local media earlier this month that Qatar had become the biggest foreign employer of Nepalese workers as a result of World Cup-related construction projects.
Qatar and other oil-rich Gulf states have long been on the target list of labour organizations for their treatment of particularly un- or low-skilled workers. The issue touches a raw nerve in countries like Qatar and the UAE where the local population constitutes a minority. Gulf states are concerned that improving labour conditions would not only have economic consequences but also give foreigners a greater stake in a society which ensures they are forced to leave the country once their contract has ended.
Nonetheless, an international campaign would tarnish Qatar’s international image carefully crafted with the launch in the 1990s of the Al Jazeera television network, the creation with Qatar Airways of a world class airline and the positioning of the Gulf state as an international sports hub with the hosting of tournaments like the World Cup.
An international labour campaign would revive some of the controversy that has overshadowed Qatar’s success in becoming the first Middle Eastern state to host a World Cup. That success has been mired by allegations of corruption that so far have proven unsubstantiated; the downfall of Mohammed Bin Hammam, the Qatari national who was FIFA vice-president and has been suspended as president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on charges of bribery, and concern that Qatar’s searing summer temperatures will impede performance during the tournament.
In its letter to Mr. Blatter the ITUC said the ITUC and BWI as well as Swiss Union Unia were "continuing to receive reports of unsafe working conditions and abuse of workers' rights as Qatar sets out to build nine stadiums in 10 years using mostly migrant labour."
Qatar’s failure to act in the wake of the report prompted the letter to Mr. Blatter and the planned campaign. "FIFA has the power to make labour rights a requirement of the Qatari authorities who are hosting a World Cup," Mr. Burrow said.
In a statement the ITUC said that the labour organisations "would mobilise workers and football fans to target each of FIFA's football associations and the international body to stop the World Cup in Qatar if labour rights are not respected. With 308 national trade union centres in 153 countries, the international trade union movement has the members, the power and the mandate to take action to stop the Qatar World Cup."
"We urge FIFA to include labour rights as a prerequisite to any future country wanting to host the World Cup. Support from countries with decent labour rights will be used to pressure the Qatari authorities and FIFA to protect workers' rights, particularly migrant workers who are the majority of the construction work force in Qatar," Mr. Yuson said.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Scenario Planning and Futurology of the Persian Gulf Post-Oil Economy
Vol. 13 Iss: 6, pp.18 - 33
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the economy of Persian Gulf countries following a post-oil economy.... more
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the economy of Persian Gulf countries following a post-oil economy. This is accompanied with a futurology study and planning of certain scenarios that can be applied to these countries.
Design/methodology/approach – This study applies a futurology approach by investigating various scenarios to explore the Arab economy after oil. As such, a series of possible policies are proposed that can be undertaken by Arab countries depending on their public policy. Each of the suggested policies involves different scenarios that have been formed and analyzed using an era-based cellular planning system.
Findings – The findings propose three main policies to be undertaken by Arab countries including: investing the oil income in miscellaneous economic baskets in order to minimize the vulnerability and maximize the profits; reducing the oil production in the coming years and transforming the one-product oil economy to a value added petrochemical economy; and seeking new sources of income and wealth. In addition, findings emphasize the necessity for using renewable and lasting wealth resources and minimizing the dependency of countries on the oil economy.
Originality/value – The proposed scenarios in the study can act as strategic constructs in strengthening the scenario sets in the consecutive years and help develop other scenarios in the future. As such, this paper would be of interest to governmental advisors, strategic planners and policy-makers involved in studies related to the Middle East.
Embattled Yemeni leader turns to soccer to polish his tattered image
Monday, September 26, 2011
By James M. Dorsey
Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s... more
Monday, September 26, 2011
By James M. Dorsey
Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s meeting Sunday with his country’s national youth soccer team highlights the importance of soccer as a battlefield in the struggle between Arab autocrats and pro-democracy activists.
Mr. Saleh congratulated team for their qualification for the 2011 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup finals barely two days after returning to Yemen from three months of treatment in Saudi Arabia of severe wounds he suffered in an attack in June on his presidential compound by opposition forces.
The Yemeni leader took time out to bask in the success of the squad in a bid to shore up his tattered image in a soccer-crazy country that is teetering on the brink of civil war as a result of sixth months of mass anti-government protests demanding his resignation from 33 years in office. He did so as troops commanded by his son attacked protesters and clashed with rebel army units in battles that raised the death toll of eight days of violence to more than 100 despite Mr. Saleh’s declaration of a ceasefire.
Associating himself with one of the country’s greatest passions is part of Mr. Saleh’s survival strategy that involves as he announced in a televised speech on Sunday early presidential elections. Mr. Saleh’s proposal is unlikely to curry favor with his opponents who demand his immediate resignation, constitutional reform and only then elections. Mr. Saleh repeatedly agreed earlier this year to a Gulf-Cooperation Council (GCC) deal in which he would resign in exchange for immunity from prosecution only to back out at the last minute.
In associating himself with soccer, Mr. Saleh is following in the footsteps of other Middle Eastern and North African autocrats, including the ousted leaders of Egypt and Libya and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who saw soccer as a way to boost their tarnished images.
US embassy cables disclosed by Wikileaks detail the fuelling of nationalist emotions by Mr. Mubarak’s sons Gamal, who the president was believed to be grooming as his successor, and Alaa, to shore up the regime’s image after riots erupted in the wake of a crucial 2009 World Cup qualifier in which Algeria dashed Egypt’s hopes of playing in the tournament’s finals in South Africa. A November 25, 2009 cable said the only time Gamal displayed emotion during a presentation on healthcare was when he discussed the violence that took place in the Sudanese capital Khartoum where the match was played.
A 2009 cable from the US embassy in Tehran describes how Mr. Ahmadinejad sought with limited success to associate himself with Iran’s national team and soccer’s popularity. The Iranian president went as far as in 2006 lifting the ban on women watching soccer matches in Iranian stadia, but in a rare public disagreement was overruled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian leader has also been hands-on in the management of the Iranian team. The cable reports that he pressured the Iranian football federation to lift its 2008 suspension of star Ali Karimi so that he could play in 2010 World Cup qualifiers, engineered the 2009 firing of Ali Daei as coach, ensured that Mr. Daei’s successor Mohamed Mayeli-Kohan lasted all of two weeks in the job and ultimately was succeeded by the president’s candidate, Afshin Ghotbi.
Mr. Ahmadinejad justified his interference by saying that “unfortunately, this sport has been afflicted with some very bad issues. I must intervene personally to push aside these destructive issues.”
Mr. Saleh heaped praise on the Yemeni youth team. “Your performance has been excellent. You have proved that the Yemeni sports are continuously developed and able to compete in the Arab, regional and international sports events" the president told them. He said that he had followed the team closely during his recovery in Saudi Arabia and that his government would fully support it.
Mr. Saleh’s meeting with the soccer players echoes rifts in society and the game that emerged during the revolts in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya where managers and players often stayed on the side lines of the battle for greater freedom or even expressed support for the embattled leader. In Egypt, militant fans unfurled a banner during one of the first matches after Mr. Mubarak’s demise that read: "We followed you everywhere but in the hard times we didn't find you."
Player and soccer manager attitudes towards the revolts in the Middle East and North Africa reflect a complex relationship of the ruled with the dictator that is evident across the region. It is an attitude that cannot be reduced to vested economic interest or privilege but constitutes an expression of the dictator’s success in getting those he rules to internalize his positioning as the nation’s father. It is that rupture of the internalization articulated in statements of protesters that they had broken the barrier of fear that constitutes the core of the region’s newly found people power.
The internalization of the dictator as a father figure means that players and managers often support protesters’ demands for an end to corruption, greater transparency and more freedom, but object to the perceived indignity to which they see their leader or father as being subjected to. It is an attitude that resembles that of a child who defends his father irrespective of whether his father is right or wrong.
Mr. Saleh’s focus on soccer highlights the struggle between autocrats and activists for control of the soccer pitch and the credibility that emanates from the one institution and venue that commands the kind of deep-seated passion evoked by religion in a conservative swath of land stretching from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the oil-rich sheikhdoms of the Gulf.
For militant soccer fans, who emerged as soccer increasingly became a political football, wresting control of the pitch from autocratic regimes is a battle against the yoke of autocratic rule, economic mismanagement and corruption. It also signifies the quest for dignity; for national, ethnic and sectarian identity and women’s rights.
Fans from Algeria to Iran have resisted the efforts by the region’s autocrats to politically control stadiums by repeatedly turning them into venues to express pent-up anger and frustration, assert national, ethnic and sectarian identity and demand women’s rights. “The battle is on the soccer pitch because there is no freedom and no political competition. Talking doesn’t change things. We fought for our rights in the stadium for four years. That prepared us for the day that the revolt against Mubarak erupted,” said Ahmad Fondu, a leader of militant, highly politicized, violence-prone soccer fans in Egypt.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
2022 World Cup spotlights strains in Qatari society
Thursday, September 15, 2011
By James M. Dorsey
A recent article in Cornell University’s... more
Thursday, September 15, 2011
By James M. Dorsey
A recent article in Cornell University’s student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, questioning whether Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the wife of the ruler of Qatar, should be a member of the Weill Cornell Medical College Board of Overseers after establishing a clinic that describes homosexuality as a “behavioural disorder” and seeks to treat people who are gay spotlights complex issues the conservative Gulf state is confronting as it prepares to host the 2022 World Cup.
The stir in both the United States and Qatar caused by the article also puts into sharp relief tensions between the ambitions of the Qatari ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and Qatar’s elite to position the energy-rich Gulf state as an enlightened and important international political and financial player and a global sports hub, and the aspirations of significant segments of its conservative population.
If any Arab state has so far remained untouched by the wave of anti-government protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa it is Qatar whose tiny population has benefitted from a cradle to grave social safety net, the country’s energy wealth and the emir’s policies that have put Qatar on the map. To the degree that there is criticism of the emir’s policies, their likely impact on Qatari society and the adjustments Qatar is under pressure to make as a result of its successful bid to host the World Cup, they are expressed quietly in private conversations and diwaniyas where local men gather.
Much like in the United Arab Emirates, Qataris are reluctant to rock the boat in a country in which they constitute a majority and that is forced to tolerate a majority of expatriates to compensate for the local population’s lack of numbers. As a result, both Qatar and the UAE have not been hit by mass anti-government protests as occurred in Bahrain, threaten to erupt in Kuwait and earlier this year racked Oman. The region’s protest wave has already toppled the autocratic leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and is tearing Syria and Yemen apart.
Nevertheless, Qatar’s bid to be a global player is putting stressful demands on a society that is rooted in deep-seated conservative tribal and Islamic values. To host the World Cup, Qatar has already had to expand the areas during the tournament in which alcohol can be consumed from beyond the relatively few bars in luxury hotels.
Trade unions are demanding that the Gulf state prove that migrant workers building infrastructure for the tournament are not subject to inhuman conditions. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the world’s largest trade union, and Building Workers International (BWI) charged in a report earlier this year that the working and living conditions of mostly Asian migrant labour being used to build nine stadiums in 10 years are unsafe and unregulated.
“A huge migrant labour force, with very little rights, no access to any unions, very unsafe practices and inhuman living conditions will be literally putting their lives on the line to deliver the 2022 World Cup,” said ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow ITUC..
BWI secretary general Ambet Yuson charged that Qatar’s “ability to deliver the World Cup is totally dependent on severe exploitation of migrant labour, which we believe to be barely above forced labour conditions.”
David Roberts notes on The Gulf Blog that a majority of Qataris are concerned with the overhaul of the Qatari education system by Rand Corp. that involved changing curricula, the language of instruction and the lifting of gender segregation in classrooms in Education City, an education-focused free zone. Cornell is one of the foreign universities that has a campus in Education City.
Similarly, Sheikha Moza’s very public role and presence constitutes a divisive issue. To young women, the Sheikha serves as a role model, yet many Qataris describe it, according to Mr. Roberts, as “undesirable or problematic” in a conservative country like Qatar.
Many Qataris take issue with Sheikha Moza’s mandatory introduction of DNA tests before marriage in a society where marriage among cousins is customary.
The Cornell student newspaper article re-focuses attention on apprehensions raised from the day Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup last December about the status of gay rights. Qatar like most predominantly Muslim nations bans homosexuality and gay groups have raised concerns about the status of gay fans during the tournament.
The website of Sheika Moza’s says that Al Aween clinic specializes in the treatment of disorders such as addiction to alcohol, drug and Internet use, as well as deviant and unusual sexual behaviour. The website hosts a document that lists homosexuality as one of several “behavioural disorders and negative tendencies.”
To treat its patients, the clinic offers a variety of “therapeutic units” and counselling. The website includes samples of counselling provided to patients. For example, a woman seeking advice on her relationship with another woman was told to stop her “unhealthy sexual behaviour” and end communication with her partner.
To be sure, Qatar is but one of many countries in the region struggling to balance conservative, traditional values with the demands of a globalized world. The hosting of the World Cup, however, puts it more than any other society in the Gulf under the international magnifying glass and emphasizes differences in perceptions of the country’s ruler and the traditional, conservative instincts of his subjects.
Says Mr. Roberts: “I repeat what I said on the day that they won the prize (the World Cup): they don’t have a clue what they’ve let themselves in for.”
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Syria and Bahrain: Two poles of the Arab revolt highlight a slide toward sectarianism
By James M. Dorsey
If Syria and Bahrain represent two poles of the 10-month old popular revolt sweeping the... more
By James M. Dorsey
If Syria and Bahrain represent two poles of the 10-month old popular revolt sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, they also highlight the increasing danger of the uprising descending into a sectarian confrontation between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Voices in Syria calling for armed resistance to President Bashar al-Assad’s six-month old brutal crackdown that has failed to squash largely peaceful mass anti-government protests are gaining momentum as Sunni Muslim resentment mounts against Alawites, an offshoot of Shiism to which Mr. Assad and his ruling clique belong, and the government fans sectarian flames to undermine the opposition’s calls for greater freedom and economic opportunity.
Brutal repression and sectarianism enabled Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, a Sunni ruling a Shiite majority, to drive a wedge between his Sunni and Shiite Muslims subjects and squash mass protests demanding the toppling of the king’s family that has ruled the Gulf island since the 18th century. The crackdown moved the protests out of the capital Manama and into villages.
Failed efforts to address the protesters’ concerns in a national dialogue have left anti-government sentiment boiling at the surface. Some 10,000 people attended the funeral of a 14 year-old boy killed by police during an end of Ramadan demonstration and prompted demonstrators for the first time to attempt to reclaim Pearl Roundabout, the rallying point in Manama of the squashed protests, that was bulldozed in March and turned into a traffic junction.
The prospect of Syria deteriorating into armed conflict plays into Saudi-led efforts to paint the wave of revolts across the region as a confrontation between the Saudi-led Sunni and the Iranian-led Shiite worlds. Saudi and Bahraini portrayal of the anti-Khalifa protesters as Iranian stooges that are part of an attempt by the Islamic repubic to undermine the region’s conservative Sunni rulers has deepened the sectarian divide on the island.
With a growing number of Syrian protesters, inspired by the NATO-backed rebel success in Libya that drove Libyan leader Col. Moammar Qaddafi from power in a six-month civil war, reports of Saudi funding of arms acquisitions are mounting. Prices on Lebanon’s market reportedly have soared in recent weeks. Mohammed Rahhal, the head of the Revolutionary Council of the Syrian Coordination Committees, a Syrian opposition group, told Ash Sharq al-Awsat newspaper last week that “we made the decision to arm the revolution, which will turn violent very soon, because what we are being subjected to today is a global conspiracy that can only be faced by an armed uprising.”
The eruption of widespread armed resistance would turn Mr. Assad’s repeated allegations that his forces are confronting foreign-supported armed gangs rather than peaceful protesters into a self-fulfilling prophecy. So far, the protests in which more than 2,000 people have been killed, have been largely peaceful despite a number of armed attacks on Syrian military and security personnel.
German weekly Die Zeit journalist Wolfgang Bauer, one of a few reporters that have penetrated Syria, which has refused entry to international media describes the situation in Homs, Syria’s third largest city, as similar to war-torn Beirut at the time of the Lebanese civil war, “divided along ethnic and religious lines where it's too dangerous for people to travel in a particular direction because they will be shot if they do so ... Alawites have secured the streets leading to their residential areas with checkpoints. Their street barricades aren't manned by the military, but by Alawite civilians who now fear being massacred in a Syria without Assad."
Following an attack in July on a Sunni mosque by Alawites, Sunnis reportedly reacted by abducting and killing three Alawites. In response, Alawites went on a rampage, looting and burning Sunni shops, killing three Sunnis. Afraid of retaliation, Alawites are fleeing the city. A Facebook page entitled Homs Revolution posts reports about abused Alawites and urges Sunnis, who account for three quarters of Homs’ population, to take up arms against the government. The page has been endorsed by thousands.
The increased sectarian violence complicates US and European efforts to support the Syrian opposition publicly with condemnations of the crackdown and sanctions against the Syrian regime and quietly with advice and targeted aid. It also raises the specter of sectarian violence spreading to neighboring Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey.
The United States and Europe have sought to stem the slide toward increased violence and sectarian strife in Syria and Bahrain in different ways with little success on the Gulf island and a sliver of hope in Syria. Western nations have urged King Khalifa to engage in genuine dialogue with his opponents but have stopped short of holding the ruler accountable for his actions.
By contrast, the West has slapped a series of economic sanctions on Mr. Assad and his cohorts in a bid to drive a wedge between the Syrian leader and significant segments of the predominantly Sunni and Christian business community that has so far sat on the side lines of the crisis. The sanctions have prompted a growing number of businessmen to weigh choosing between what they see as a choice between a rock and a hard place: fear of a rise of retribution and retaliation and the emergence of Islamists in a post-Assad Syria, and a period of civil war and chaos in which the business community would at least be seen as having supported the eventual defeat of the Syrian leader.
To state that Syria and Bahrain both demonstrate that brutal crackdowns do not provide solutions and tend to aggravate rather than alleviate a crisis is kicking in an open door. Yet, a slide into escalated sectarianism violence in Syria, Bahrain and elsewhere in the region would not only constitute a significant setback for anti-autocratic protesters but could turn the Middle East and North Africa into an even more volatile, instable region of protracted bloody clashes, assassinations, suicide bombings, sectarian cleansing and mass migrations of refugees.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Syria fuels schism between Sunnis and Shiites
Sunday, August 14, 2011
By James M. Dorsey
The struggle for greater political freedom in Syria... more
Sunday, August 14, 2011
By James M. Dorsey
The struggle for greater political freedom in Syria is emerging as a lightning rod for a far greater schism in the Middle East and North Africa – one that is more worrisome and that threatens to divide the region and several of its societies not only along political lines but also along sectarian lines.
A majority of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia have in the last week for the first time since anti-government protesters took to the streets in March condemned Syrian president Bashar al Assad’s crackdown not because they are abhorred by the regime’s brutality or because they favor political and economic change but because Mr. Assad enjoys the backing of predominantly Shiite Iran.
By viewing the protests sweeping the region as a product of subversive Iranian policies inspired in some cases by deep-seated Sunni prejudice against Shiites, Arab leaders led by Saudi King Abdullah are seeking to further isolate Iran, Syria’s staunchest ally, and taint demands for far-reaching change as the product of foreign intervention rather than a homegrown, grassroots movement that is challenging decades of autocratic rule.
Bahrain has so far emerged as the Arab state most effected by the Sunni-Shiite divide but the schism is also impacting politics in Iraq and potentially could stoke tension in Lebanon. Syrian protesters have succeeded, at least for now, in preventing a series of recent sectarian killings from transforming their pro-democracy movement into a struggle between Sunnis and Alawites, a minority sect associated with Shiism to which Mr. Assad belongs.
Bahraini King Khalifa, backed by King Abdullah and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders succeeded in turning what started in February as protests by Sunnis and Shiites standing shoulder-to-shoulder in favor of more equitable housing and land policies, fairer representation in parliament and constitutional reform into a dividing line that separates the communities. The GCC-backed violent squashing of the protests in March has left the island deeply divided with Shiites and Sunnis distrustful of one another. Government efforts to heal the wounds appear to have only thrown salt into them. The country’s major Shiite opposition parties have vowed to boycott next month’s parliamentary by-elections called to fill the seats of 18 deputies who resigned in protest against the crackdown.
Lebanon has so far proven itself remarkably immune to the turmoil just across its border even if pro- and anti-Syrian factions are battling it out in the country’s media. More importantly, the reputation of Hezbollah, the Shiite militia in Lebanon widely seen as a bastion of resistance against Israel, has suffered significantly because of the group’s siding with Mr. Assad and the recent indictment of four of its operatives on charges of having been involved in the 2005 killing of prime minister Rafik Hariri. Nonetheless, concern remains that the turmoil could ultimately upset Lebanon’s fragile sectarian apple cart.
In Iraq, however, the sectarian schism has deepened political divisions with Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a Shiite, standing out as the one major Arab leader to have refrained from condemning Mr. Assad’s crackdown. Instead, he has called on the protesters not to undermine the Syrian state and has hosted a delegation of Syrian government officials and businessmen to discuss closer economic ties, including the construction of a gas pipeline that would run from Iran through Iraq to Syria. Mr. Maliki further hosted Syria’s foreign minister in Baghdad in June.
By contrast, the Sunni speaker of Iraq’s parliament, Osama al Najafi, accused the Syrian government of suppressing the freedom of its people and condemned the crackdown on protesters as unacceptable. Mr. Najafi said the government had the obligation to protect the lives and property of its people and called for an end to the bloodshed.
Mr. Maliki’s reluctance to condemn Mr. Assad despite Iraqi allegations that jihadists who wreaked havoc in Iraq had been able to enter the country from Syria is as much a function of the prime minister’s relationship with Iran and the fact that Syria granted him asylum while Saddam Hussein was in power as it is that Saudi Arabia’s deep-seated fear of Shiite rule has strained relations with Iraq and stopped it from opening an embassy in Baghdad. In fact, Saudi Arabia has made sectarian identity a cornerstone of its policy in the region.
To be sure, Saudi Arabia has good reason to want to isolate Iran. The Islamic republic has sought to cast the wave of protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa as a success of its own revolution that overthrew the Shah 32 years ago. Alleged Iranian agents have been uncovered in Bahrain and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are legitimately concerned about Iran’s nuclear program.
The timing of Saudi Arabia’s stepped up effort to further corner Iran could not be better. Iran’s longstanding claim that it is the first and only Middle Eastern nation to have thrown off the shackles of a subservient relationship with the United States no longer holds with the toppling of the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, who were widely seen as US lackeys. The fall of the Syrian president would constitute a further major setback for Iran, depriving it of its major Arab ally and complicating its ability to furnish a politically weakened Hezbollah with arms.
Exploiting Iran’s weakening position as a result of the Arab revolt is one thing; casting the Saudi-Iranian rivalry in sectarian terms is another. Sectarianism may delay but will not stop the inevitable course of history and could unleash forces that ultimately could prove far more detrimental to regional security and stability.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Bahrain: A headache for Obama and Blatter
Friday, August 12, 2011
By James M. Dorsey
US president Barak Obama and Sepp Blatter, the head... more
Friday, August 12, 2011
By James M. Dorsey
US president Barak Obama and Sepp Blatter, the head of world soccer body FIFA, share the same headache: what to do about Bahrain?
So far, Messrs. Obama and Blatter have essentially shied away from confronting the issue of a ruler who employs mercenaries to violently suppress pro-democracy demonstrators, including some of the country's most prominent soccer players.
The protests in February and March that started with Shiites and Sunnis standing shoulder to shoulder were an expression of frustration about years of failed dialogue over the need for more equitable housing and land policies, fairer representation in parliament and constitutional reform.
The crackdown and the government’s insistence that Iran had instigated the protests aided by a Shiite fifth column transformed the situation into one of sectarian tension. To be sure, there was violence on both sides of the sectarian and political divide during the protests but healing of the wounds is likely to prove difficult if not impossible without a genuine dialogue and members of the security forces being held accountable.
The US has been quietly but unsuccessfully urging King Khalifa for years to engage in a dialogue that would lead to democracy. Mr. Obama in May cautioned that it was difficult to conduct a national dialogue with people who have been incarcerated. Bahrain has since released a number of its detainees, including opposition members of parliament and national team players, but referred some of them to security courts.
Mr. Blatter has questioned the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) about credible reports of retribution against the soccer players and officials who allegedly had participated in the anti-government demonstrations as well as predominantly Shiite Muslim clubs. The FIFA president however appears to have accepted at face value the BFA's statement that no sports players or officials were disciplined or harassed because of their association with the people power uprising earlier this year that was brutally crushed - a statement that flies in the face of reporting in Bahrain's state-controlled media and reports by people involved in Bahraini soccer.
For both Mr. Obama and Mr. Blatter, the issue is what is the price of postponing the inevitable? The widespread sense of discontent remains with a deeper than ever sectarian divide that makes the status quo in Bahrain unsustainable. The crackdown has pushed the uprising out of the capital and reduced it to street skirmishes in villages. A government-inspired national dialogue has all but failed. An independent investigation into the crackdown has yet to prove its integrity and independence but is credited for some of the prisoner releases.
Mr. Obama's reluctance is strengthened by the fact that he does not want to put at risk the US Navy's Fifth Fleet base on the Gulf island. Nor does he want to cross what is a red line for Saudi Arabia: a push for the introduction of a constitutional monarchy in one of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the spread of people protests in the Gulf and last but certainly not least, the emergence of a Shi'a majority government.
Similarly, Mr. Blatter has seldom sought to rock the boat in the Middle East and North Africa despite the region's violation of multiple FIFA rules and regulations. The wearing of the hijab or Islamic headdress by Iranian and deeply religious Muslim women players has been the one exception, and only because, according to Western FIFA officials, it clashes with Mr. Blatter's strong Catholic beliefs.
The coming months are likely to highlight the pitfalls of the choices Messrs. Obama and Blatter have so far made with regard to Bahrain.
The trials against members of parliament, medics, and democracy and human rights activists put on public display the government’s repressive measures as well as the lack of straightforwardness on the part of Bahraini institutions like the BFA and raise serious questions about the choices made by Messrs. Obama and Blatter.
The recent recruitment of additional Sunni Muslim Pakistanis for Bahrain’s special forces, riot police and particularly the National Guard that led the crackdown, can only serve to deepen cleavages in a Sunni-ruled predominantly Shiite society. Shiites are reportedly barred from joining the security forces - a clear sign of the regime's lack of confidence in its own citizens. That is reinforced by a widespread belief that the Pakistani recruits will ultimately be granted Bahraini citizenship.
The cleavages are visible across society and nowhere more so than in soccer. They cut, for example, straight through Al-Ahli SC, the one Bahraini club that was non-sectarian, neither Sunni nor Shiite, and won the kingdom’s top league title last year.
The government’s decision to suspend the island’s league during the protests to ensure that the soccer pitch did not become an opposition rallying point didn’t stop players and others involved in soccer from taking sides in a confrontation that has left Sunnis and Shiites deeply divided about the relationship between their communities and the future of their country.
Shiite brothers A’ala and Mohammed Hubail, who also played for Bahrain’s national team, joined the protests. Two of their Sunni fellow players meanwhile hooked up with pro-government gangs that roamed the streets attacking the protesters with clubs and pickaxe handles.
Al-Ahli is owned by Bahrain’s wealthy Sunni merchant Kanoo family. Most of its players and its fans are Shiite, “We are one family. We never thought about whether you are Sunni or Shia,” said Al-Ahly chairman Fuad Kanoo in an interview with The Economist.
Once the protests had been violently suppressed, some 150 Shiite players, referees and officials were dismissed or arrested on the orders of a committee led by King Kahlifa’s son, Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa, in a bid to root out athletes who had participated in the protests. Among those penalized were six Al-Ahli players.
The Hubail brothers were detained as they were training and allegedly mistreated in prison after first being denounced on state-run television. Muhammed Hubail was sentenced in June to two years in jail, but released on bail after FIFA questioned the Bahrain association.
Mr. Obama’s dilemma has been for much of this year his struggle to reconcile US principles and values with his country’s short-term interests. So far, he has been able to reasonably manage that in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen. Bahrain, however, could well prove to be his litmus test. For Mr. Blatter too, Bahrain could turn out to be a public display of failing to in the words of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton get on the right side of history.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
“L’empire britannique informel dans le Golfe, 1820–1971” (2006)
by James Onley
This is the French version of “Britain’s Informal Empire in the Gulf, 1820–1971”, published in the Journal of Social Affairs 87 (2005).
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