Opening ceremony of the 2000 AFC Asian Cup in Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium: Picture
taken from Kaloustian.edu
As you all know by now, the upcoming WC Qualifying game opposing Lebanon and Qatar will take place on Sunday behind closed doors. No fans will be allowed from both sides for fear that some might insult the Qatari Emir.
The reason for the ban may seem silly and outrageous but before lashing out at Qatar and the Lebanese authorities, let us acknowledge that the Lebanese people, and more specifically sports fans and teams in Lebanon, are in a large part responsible for this decision.
In fact, why would the authorities be worried in the first place about Lebanese fans insulting and cursing the Qatari Emir? What the hell does cursing The Emir of Qatar have to do with a FOOTBALL game between Lebanon and Qatar? I think that’s the question that we need to ask here.
Our Lebanese Football National team is the best we had in ages, and is supported unconditionally by all the Lebanese regardless of religion and politics. Even more, the players on the team are being very poorly paid, if paid at all, yet are working hard and giving their best for the team and the Lebanese.
And how do we answer them? Mixing politics with sports and screwing up their achievements.
Sports are sports and we Lebanese should be supporting local and national teams based regardless of political affiliations. It should be forbidden and punishable by law to cheer for political leaders or religious leaders or whatever is unrelated to sports in all games. It is normal to have sports rivalries between teams or countries but they should be resolved in friendly and official games not by raising stupid sectarian and hateful slogans. We all saw how disgraceful our Basketball league was this year.
Having said that, and as stated in my previous post, I disagree fully with the decision but I hope it will serve as a wake up call for Lebanese to go cheer for sports in future games and not drag our country’s problems into every game we play.
are you for real? ignoring the bigger problem because : diddiii 3ayb el shoum some people said some bad words. bitdahek
The bigger problem is us not the Qataris.
helo el tonzeer wel tafalsof. well-said Kai and anonymous.
The biggest problem is that the average Lebanese is so brainwashed that they can’t even think straight about football!
What is there to think straight about? The government by doing so has squeezed politics right in there. I can’t believe how some “unbrainwashed” Lebanese see no huge offense to Lebanon otself by this move.
Who said it’s not an offense? It is but it’s the fruit of our behavior too.
Imagine the scene, theres a goal:
Fan A: Ya hakim kermelak hal goal!
Fan B: Ya Sayyed la 3younak!
Fan A & B: Allah Nasrallah, Allah Ouweit
Allah yse3edna!
And u say we’re not retards
Fans do these things all around the world. It is not that the Lebanese fans are those uncivilized Madmen. I think this is a wake up call for all Lebanese to know how much our governemnt think highly of us. Walaw? Banning Lebanese Fans on LEBANESE soil from watching a LEBANESE DREAM to qualify for WC. tfeh. ba3ed fee awta men heik? ya 3ayb l shoum. bala falsafe eza bta3mol ma3rouf.
as i understand … all the universe watch the sports games on CNN SPORTS and we watch them on WWF or whatever is that wrestling channel? every team’s supporters sometimes make some troubles … maybe killing each other (let’s not forget the English guys killing some Turk or whatever is that …
the solution is not by closing the doors … the solution is by making the right security measures.
and when FIFA had some concerns about Lebanon’s security … they gave all the good intentions so they can play in Lebanon
i personally think that it is better to play in a neutral venues with a fair number of supporters (whoever can afford going .. we have a good number of people)watching the game live than playing in Lebanon with closed doors and 0 supporters
again all this is my personal opinion 🙂
thank you
I agree with you on playing on neutral venues with few fans.
ra7 illak yeha bil arabe la 7ata wasilak l message 3al mazbout 2awal chi l msabeit wil 7ake bil mal3ab iza manak 7adir wala match bara bikoun kilo msabeit w 7arakeit bil iden w…w…w… wil la3ibe 7ata bein ba3ed iza semi3 bil trash talk bas la2eno ni7na sha3eb w 7okoume watye ma mne3tirif bi karamitna wein karamit hal balad iza fari2 geye yil3ab 3enna w 3am byoshtorit nkoun bala jomhour 2aw byesh7at l libnenye min balado ya 3ayb l shoum tene chi badak tchil l 7a2 3an quatar manoun sha3eb raj3e law 2ad ma tawaro w kabo masare w 3amaro bikhafo ysibo lal amir lol ma min wa2et ma toli3 l 2arar la hala l “amir” sar 2ekil 100000 msabe so plz khalas t7oto l 7a2 3al sha3eb bi kafi li fi bein 3alam makhtoufe w 7areb 3al bweib wil dawle badal ma titrouk shwayet karame la ila 7ata hal shaghle 3ayb 3ayb
Anonymous,
First of all, I did not say Qatar is not to blame. I said we are also to blame. Big Difference.
Second, the “sha3eb raj3e” that you are referring to have been financing us for years now and helping us in many ways. Qatar has the highest GDP in the world while we are doing worse by the week.
In every stadium in the world, violence and insults are frequent (although less common during international matches than regular league).
Now politics is not usually the main motive for those (it’s more about the actual sport in general).
The thing is most of the stadium where this occurs frequently are trained and equipped to deal with it (without having to shoot in the air :P).
That’s why the decision might be (somewhat) understandable .
u have a trend to read half of the sentence please read all of it “sha3eb raj3e law 2ad ma tawaro w kabo masare w 3amaro bikhafo ysibo lal amir” and about financing us it started as donations now we are their dogs and we are obeying their orders 😀 شكرا قطر and something i have learned from history no country gives donations and helps other countries without having something in return.
“…i have learned from history no country gives donations and helps other countries without having something in return.” http://fuuu.us/275.png
walla ba3ed na2is for them to decide what should WE do in OUR country screw them!
by the way i love the picture of this post 🙂
yalla forget about everything let’s go cheer for our team 🙂