Sagesse Team – Picture from Sagesse Team Facebook Page

Lebanese businessman Wadih al-Absi declared during a Press Conference yesterday that he will no longer be Sagesse’s financier for the 2012-2013 season. He claimed that ever since he entered the Sagesse Club, he called for keeping politics away from sports yet he finished his Press Conference by attacking a rival political party.

Honestly I am glad he left the team and I hope others will follow and leave Sagesse alone, starting with Imad Wakim and whomever is behind him. Even if Sagesse fans are overwhelmingly supportive (That’s what Absi’s opponents say) of a certain political party in Lebanon, a basketball team requires a competent management and long-term strategies to sustain the team and its players and the fans want to see their team win at the end of the day. Having said that, I honestly can’t but acclaim the Sagesse fans who are probably fed up with all this mess yet keep on showing to every game to support their team.

Basketball in Lebanon has never been the same ever since President Choueiri left and I don’t expect it to get any better unless drastic measures are taken and a proper federation is formed. Every year, we have a new Pr. Choueiri-wannabe willing to invest millions of dollars in 1 or more teams before it gets messy and he drops out.

To be honest, the problem is quite simple yet no one’s willing to acknowledge it. Basketball teams don’t make money in Lebanon and the people investing in them, whether it is for personal reasons or not, realize sooner or later it’s not worth it and quit. After all, pouring millions into one team does not mean the team’s going to win all titles. That’s not how basketball works.

IMHO, the only way to salvage whatever is left of Lebanese Basketball is by doing the following:
1- Limit the budget of all teams to a certain range, say between 500k and 1M a year.
2- Limit Foreign players to just one per team as long as his yearly salary doesn’t exceed 15% of the total team’s budget.
3- Naturalized players or Lebanese-American players will be paid the same way local players are. It is absurd to pay a Lebanese playing in the US 20 times more than a Lebanese player, not to mention how discouraging and frustrating this is for the rising talents.
4- Teams will be penalized financially if their fans were to shout political or racist slogans. This applies to the players and management as well.
5- Full-time Members of a political party, sons of politicians and officials etc, are not eligible to preside or take part of the team’s management.
6- Management must submit a 5-year financial plan to help make their teams profitable and improve sustainability.

Of course there are more issues to tackle but those are good enough for a start and if there’s anyone in the current federation really concerned about the future of basketball in Lebanon, they have to step up and do something before it’s too late. Until then, and I agree with Absi on that one, we will all be enjoying an exciting season since elections are coming and everyone’s throwing money left and right, but don’t expect much next year.

Here’s the full story on how Figo29 met Maradona, took a picture with him and had a little chat. [Link]

There’s only one thing I want to tell Figo29: “You lucky bastard!”

[High-Res]

I was going down The St. Nicolas stairs on Thursday on my way to Gemmayze when I noticed what looks like a small roller coaster set up on a big portion of the 500 meters staircase. I am not sure what it is being used for but I noticed a construction site at the end of the wooden railway so I am guessing they set it up to carry building materials down the stairs.

It would be fun if someone, Red Bull for example, comes up with a fun game where you go down the stairs on a roller-coaster wearing a costume (maybe during Easter) and jump off it into some pool or huge air mattress. Another idea would be a “Jump and Freeze” event but that’s more suitable for Faraya/Mzaar or the Cedars. Either ways, I will be the first to take part in such a fun event.

Source: Wiki

On a last note, I just realized that the Saint Nicolas Stairs, also known as L’Escalier de Saint-Nicolas or L’Escalier de L’Art, is the longest staircase in the Middle East with 125 steps. [Link]

Figo29 is one of the best bloggers/tweeps when it comes to football and he somehow managed to meet his idol and Football Legend Maradona yesterday. I can’t wait to see what Maradona had to tell him.

[YouTube]

I never missed a chance to show my support to the Lebanese National Football team in the past few years, and tried to keep all the blog’s readers informed of what’s happening by posting updates about the games and the team as a whole. However, if it’s true that there are that many players involved in match-fixing, of which 9 players in the National Team, then you can kiss Football goodbye in Lebanon.

According to LBC, match-fixing started back in 2006, and from the looks of it, even the Federation is aware about it yet is not doing anything to stop it. I only feel bad for all the fans and the few decent players who gave everything for the team.

Lebanese Football Blogger Figo29 hopes we’d react to this scandal like the Italians did few years back, not by winning the World Cup of course but by coming out stronger than before, but I think we need many years for that to happen, if it ever will.

Top 10 pictures of 2012. Picture taken by Goran Tomasevic. Azaz, Syria. Aug. 15, 2012.

I always enjoy reading Time’s Top 10 lists from year to year. Check out the 55 wide-ranging lists [Here].

The HuffingtonPost has a bigger album of 2012′s best pictures that you can check [Here].

Lebanese Beach Soccer player Haitham Fattal

Lebanon is the first team from the Middle East to take part in the Copa Lagos cup and has already made his presence felt by defeating 6-times Beach Soccer European Champions Portugal 5-4. Lebanon had lost its opening game to hosts Nigeria 7-6.

As stated in Copa Lagos’ website, Lebanon is an emerging force in Beach Soccer as they finished 4th at the Asian games in June 2012 and topped the qualifying group by winning all 3 games, including an impressive 8-3 victory over the UAE.

For those of you who don’t know about Copa Lagos, here’s a brief overview:

Copa Lagos Beach Soccer, is the first ever international beach soccer event to take place in Nigeria and in all Sub-Saharan Africa.

Founded in 2011, Copa Lagos is organised under the scope of Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) World Tour and will take place every year in December, in Lagos, Nigeria. The competition is played in a Round-Robin format (League Format), allowing in this way the opportunity for each team to prove themselves against all participants during three days of competition.

Copa Lagos is broadcasted in 21 international channels (Eurosport, Al-Jazeera, Globo, ESPN, Sky Sport, Canal Plus, FOX Sports, Supersport, among others) and in one national partner channel AIT (African Independent Television). Copa Lagos also aims to have a strategic role in development of beach soccer in Nigeria. In this context each edition of the competition will offer Beach Soccer Clinics and certified Refereeing and Coaching workshops.

You can check out more pictures of both games [Here] and [Here].

While watching the video, I noticed that I had posted the picture of one of the skateboarders in the video few months back, after it got published on German Sueddeutsche Zeitung’s frontpage. Check Minute 1:40 to 1:42 in the video and compare it with the picture below.

[YouTube]

Edward Maalouf won the 2012 edition of the Beirut Marathon and is still planning to compete internationally in 2013 without any financial or official support from the Lebanese authorities.

Picture from ClickSports

I just read on SportKello.com that 5 Lebanese Basketball teams (Riyadi, Byblos, Amchit, Hoops and Muttahed) in the first division have suspended their participation after being lied to prior to the Lebanese Federation elections.

What happened (According to the article) was that all teams agreed on a list of candidates to head the new federation, only to see this accord changed on elections day by Jihad Salameh, who’s in charge of the sports section in a prominent Lebanese political party. Honestly, I have no idea about what’s happening but when you have 5 teams out of 10 suspending their participation, with 4 of them ranked in the top 6, whomever came up with this federation is obviously doing a bad job.

I’ve said it and repeat it a zillion times, politics should be strictly forbidden in sports events and Lebanese Federations should not be influenced by members of political parties at all. In fact, I don’t understand how you can mess up the elections of a Lebanese Basketball Federation. If the aim is to encourage the teams, improve the sport and modernize it, then find someone competent and neutral having everyone’s consent to head the federation. How hard can it be?

Allah yer7am President Choueiri.

John Makdessi on the left

John was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on May 3, 1985 and is a first generation Lebanese-Canadian born to Lebanese parents.[1] His martial arts training started with Taekwondo at the age of 6. When John started high school though, his dojo closed, and he could no longer continue. Towards the end of highschool at the age of 17, he found a Karate Dojo. He spent a lot of his time competing in Kickboxing tournaments, and in 2006 won a gold medal in the USKBA. After going 22-0 in Kickboxing, John started training for Mixed Martial Arts. [Wiki]

He played 5 UFC games so far, lost 2 and won 3. His third win came yesterday after he beat Canadian Sam Stout. [UFC]

We have a few talented MMA fighters in Lebanon. Let’s hope one of them will be able to compete at the highest level of the competition one day just like John Makdessi is doing now.

[YouTube]

Lebanon still has a chance to qualify to the 2014 World Cup as Uzbekistan defeated Iran surprisingly 1-0 in Tehran. I have to say the game was poor from both sides but Qatar were the better side towards the end and scored a beautiful goal from a 30m shot.

Here are the standings from the group Lebanon is in. [Group A]

Picture taken by Monileq

Lebanese fans at the stadium – Picture by Elie Harfouche

Predictions show Lebanon as a winner – via @Figo29

Lebanese fans at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha

Lebanese Football National team already on the pitch
Both pictures taken from Monileq

The game starts at 4:45 pm Lebanon time. Follow the hashtag #GoLebanon for live updates.

Update: To watch the game live, click [Here]. Thank you Antoine!

As posted earlier last week, The Lebanese National Football team will play a decisive World Cup Qualifying game against Qatar today on November 14 at 4:45pm at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha. Lebanon needs to come back with 3 points in order to keep its chances in the final round of World Cup Qualification alive.

Here’s a post by Figo29 on how important and historic this game is.

Best of luck to the Lebanese National Team!

AP Picture taken from WeAreLebanon

Over 33,000 runners defied today the bad weather to take part in the 9th edition of 2012 Beirut Marathon. Ethiopian runner Kadir Pecaro won the 42.195 Km race while “Hussein Awada was the first Lebanese to finish the same race with a time of 2 hours and 28 minutes” [Naharnet].

Picture taken from WeAreLebanon

Picture from the DailyStar: British ambassador Tom Fletcher participating in the marathon

Picture from the DailyStar: 150 political, diplomatic, media, and social figures, including first lady Wafaa Suleiman attended the event.

Picture from BeirutMarathon: Ethiopian participants cheering.

Picture from BeirutMarathon: 42k special needs race at the starting line.

Edward Maalouf always up for the challenge

Red Cross volunteers joining the race

Beirut Marathon association provided rain coats at cheap prices for all participants

For more pictures, you can check out BeirutMarathon [Facebook page] and [Website] and The DailyStar [Website].