President Jad Kahwaji on Champville’s first title

Picture from Click-Sports

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Army Chief Jean Kahwaji’s son and Champville’s president Jad Kahwaji after Champville clinched their first Lebanese Basketball title:

وعن التسييس الذي أصبح لاعباً أساسيّاً في رياضة كرة السلة، قال قهوجي: “للأسف التسييس جزء أساس من حياتنا اليوميّة، وشاءت الظروف أن يكون هناك وضع خاص، إنّما نحن من جانبنا نعمل على إبعاد السياسة عن هذه اللعبة التي نحب، وهذا يتطلّب من الفرق كلّها العمل مع جمهورها للفصل بين السياسة واللعبة”. [Link]

English translation: Kahwaji said in regards to mixing sports with politics that despite politics being an essential part of our everyday life, they tried hard as a Champville administration to keep politics away from the game and that it requires a lot of efforts specially when dealing with the fans.

It doesn’t look like they tried so hard in the picture above. In fact, I believe it is relatively easy for any Lebanese Basketball team to ask its fans to stay away from political slogans and enjoy the game, but it seems to me they are exploiting politics to attract fans instead of keeping politics away from basketball. Shame.