How we perceive the World Cup has been forever changed by
the latest FIFA tournament in Qatar — not only for the many firsts it
represented, which were quite significant but also for the scope of debates it
sparked and the grim Western bias it exposed.
اضافة اعلان
Leading up to the event, a post-Arab Spring facet was
overwhelmingly underlying various online discussions surrounding the football
tournament. Considering all the dreams for a new era of democracy, development,
and freedom that were fractured and crushed after 2013 and the chaos that most
of the region was mired in, a World Cup seemed, for some, out of place.
Yet, this quickly changed after the spectacular opening
ceremony at
Al-Bayt Stadium in Qatar. The event brought all Arabs to the
forefront, attracting with it a massive smear campaign against the very country
that had vowed to host a tournament to bring humanity together when it upset
the prejudices of Western cultures and their representatives.
It was a positive impulse that should be nurtured and harnessed, and an important lesson to remember: that we can be ourselves, with all our multiplicities and individualities.
For many self-proclaimed “professional” mainstream media
outlets in France, Germany, the UK, and elsewhere, it was bad news to see a
small, non-Western country host an event this big on its own terms without
showing any desperation to appease or assume the attitudes of anyone. Racist,
bitter, and stereotypical coverage prompted a sort of necessary anger, and with
it an urge to respond to the systematic media biases and the entrenched
superiority complex they revealed.
This crucial shift in perspective was also guaranteed by
several other factors, including the galvanizing effect of the rise of
Morocco’s spirited Atlas Lions in the tournament, and the stunning, probably
upsetting performance of other
Arab teams like Saudi Arabia, which defeated the
then-twice world champion Argentina (now three-time champion), in addition to
Tunisia’s draw with Denmark and its shock win over France.
Happy with these unexpected results, I felt something
reminiscent of the early days of the Arab Spring: a strong sense of union and
hope, of a distinct personality and a dynamic collective potential. The
brilliant football performance demonstrated by the Arab and African teams and
the genuine support it mobilized made the World Cup in Qatar a fitting stage
for regenerating resistance against the ridicule and demonization of our
cultures, and a timely occasion for an assertive disenchantment with those who
reserve the right to do so.
The brilliant football performance demonstrated by the Arab and African teams and the genuine support it mobilized made the World Cup in Qatar a fitting stage for regenerating resistance against the ridicule and demonization of our cultures.
And with the omnipresence of the
Palestinian flag among fans
both in and out of stadiums, and Israeli journalists being shunned and publicly
rejected, the atmosphere felt uniquely electrifying, and the football
tournament proved to be an ultimate space for expression of Arab solidarity and
aspirations.
The sentiment was contagious. My six-year-old son, a staunch
Messi fan, quickly shifted allegiance to support Saudi Arabia because everybody
else did the just the same — and it felt like the right thing to do. Their win
and the euphoria that followed prompted him to change the language settings on
his PlayStation to hear the Arabic commentary on the FIFA game.
I could not be happier — it almost felt like toppling a
linguistic dictator at home, a much-needed proof for the young,
football-obsessed boy that his language and culture are not inferior, and his
spontaneous affinity with his fellow Arabs was meaningful. It was a positive
impulse that should be nurtured and harnessed, and an important lesson to
remember: that we can be ourselves, with all our multiplicities and
individualities.
The
World Cup in Qatar was indeed unique, with its many
firsts (by now well-known), great performances on the field, new and inspiring
heroes of the game, and epic finales. But it was also a universal event
par-excellence, during which the unscrupulous calumnies against the host
country were challenged, and the overt acts of displaying superiority over
others were fittingly and affirmatively rejected.
While the Moroccan, Saudi, Tunisian, and other
Arab teams did not make it to the final match, Argentina’s win did not mean the region’s
loss. On the global stage, the tournament was a great achievement for Qatar —
and a victory for all Arabs.
Mohammad Zeidan is a writer and translator from Jordan. He
currently works as an editor at Ultrasawt, an Arabic media network founded
in 2015. Zeidan has translated several books into Arabic, including "The
Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge" by IlanPappe and
"Palestine: A Personal History" by Karl Sabbagh.
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