The unjust world of soccer

My nephew Amir, a diehard football fan, watched the match between Egypt and Argentina and was devastated when Egypt lost. He watched the interview with the Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan afterward and explained to me at length what the complaint was all about. As I listened, he asked me, "What does it mean when the Egyptian coach says, 'We have suffered injustice'?"

"chim dayee - eyes of uncle - 'injustice' could mean many things, but I think the coach meant there was a double standard in how the game was refereed," I responded.

"What is a double standard?" he asks.

"A double standard is rooted in prejudices and biases, applying rules and laws differently based on someone's background, color, religion, or ethnicity," I respond as simply as I can.

"That sounds like racism," he says, pausing to stare at me through the WhatsApp screen, a cubical world that connects us from thousands of miles away.

And then he asks: "Is that racism?"

"Yes, azizam - yes my dear -" I respond with a sigh.

"I am as angry as you are," I tell him. "I wish your favorite player, Salah, and his team had won the match, but you know, the world is unjust. The French referee, François Letexier, and his team of VAR assistants turned a blind eye to two penalties on Egyptian players, and a second goal was controversially disallowed. So yes, there is racism and corruption in the soccer world as well."

"But, you know, there is hope. More African nations are now competing in the World Cup. The future belongs to them, not Europeans," I end with an assurance. 

Soccer is a total social phenomenon. To the outside world, non-engaged observers, this match was just "a game", but anthropologically speaking, for many football diehard fans in Egypt, this was a battlefield of national honor.

I accidentally saw a video today; I can't remember exactly where, but on one of the social media platforms, where Messi's jersey number 10 was being burned by a father and his children. In the background, the Egyptian flag, carried by a child running around the fire, was being waved in the wind as smoke rose and jerseys in red and blue, and light blue and white, crumbled to ashes. 

The Egypt vs Argentina battlefield in a way occurred in post-colonial power dynamics, and Egyptian soccer authorities' official complaint was in a way against the double standard that is fed by hegemonic whiteness on the global stage. 

World cup and humiliation of former colonizers

Amir, my nephew, is a diehard football fan in every sense of the word. His loyalty to European teams is unshakable, to the point that he proudly displays his allegiance by wearing hats and jerseys from clubs and famous football players. 

In this World Cup, he supports Argentina, France, and Spain. He is in middle school and knows most of the players and great details about them, which I greatly admire, since I barely know a few famous players.

During my visit here in Calgary, we watched a few games live with the help of a VPN to bypass the paywall; otherwise, we would have had to pay $85 to corporations that monopolize the live broadcast of games, driven by insatiable greed and an endless hunger for more power. The plotocrats who have no shortage of ways to entertain themselves, and yet, with breathtaking audacity, they want to turn the only entertainment accessible to the poor, requiring nothing more than a ball, into yet another opportunity to extract profit. Of course, let's not forget that FIFA itself has become a mafia-like organization for allowing all of this to happen. Anyway.

Amir asks me, "Uncle, why don't you support France, Spain, and Argentina?"

"Why should I support them, azizam (my dear)?" I ask.

"Because in those teams, there are stars. For example, Mbappe, Lamine Yamal, and Messi," he answers, with a sense of seriousness.

"ah."

"Do you know why I am not a fan of all these powerful European teams?"

"No," he answers.

"When a small team from a small African nation confronts a powerful European team and wins the game, there is a thrill."

"What is the thrill?" he asks.

"The humiliation of the strong team."

"ok."

"There is another reason why I enjoy their humiliation," I add, wanting to give him a historical reason why I support soccer teams of small nations from the global south.

"What is it?" he asks.

"That's a historical issue. For example, look at Cape Verde. It has a population of nearly 500,000. It was a Portuguese colony for more than 500 years, until 1975," I respond.

"Or look at Ghana. It was a British colony until 1957. Yesterday, the former British colonial team couldn't score against Ghana's team. That's an insult in itself."

"So what?" he asks with a tinge of visible uncertainty in his voice, indicating maybe he is not convinced.

"The humiliation of the former colonial power is a kind of revenge."

"Ah."

"What is a colonial [country]?" he asks.

"Chim dayee - eyes of uncle!" I continue. "A colonial country is the one with a big military that colonizes another country. It is called colonization. It means that a powerful country invades and occupies your homeland by force, steals and exploits its natural resources, takes away your freedom, and oppresses you in any shape or form it wants, and you can't ask why."

"That's why, when those soccer teams from smaller nations encounter European teams and stop them from winning, or sometimes even beat them, I feel like they're taking some kind of revenge, because the mighty team is humiliated. That's what matters."

As our gaze locks on the TV screen, our eyes tracking the ball being kicked from side to side by the players, I notice that Amir is silent, as if lost in thought. I don't know if he's thinking about the game or about the things we've just discussed.

What to Remember from World Cup 2018

I was very much liked to see a small nation underdog team is going to collect the trophy of FIFA World Cup in 2018, but as sheer bad luck Mario Mandzuki own goal put France ahead of Croatia and that underpinned an ominous augury of loss.

I followed the match live on my mobile phone but I couldn't watch the game live. I watched it later at night when I came from work. The Croatian players had possession of the ball for much of the game but it doesn't actually matter since we have seen the game between Russia and Spain. The Spanish players have dominated the game and played almost 80% of the ball at Russian's field, but just maintaining the ball is not enough. Spain passed the ball 1,100 times, while Russian barely completed 300 passes and it was Spain, finally, at penalty that was knocked out.

I am not an expert but I read opinions and statistics about Croatian previous matches. One thing that caught my attention was that a winning team must be ambitious to win by scoring not dragging to extra time and finally penalty, which was exactly what happened at the game between Russia and Croatia. Having that in mind and then their game with England at extra time, I was not very optimistic, but I did not lose the hope for Croatia to win this year’s World Cup.

Anyway, there is a lot to remember about this year’s FIFA World Cup. We might forget that France won the World Cup and it may not matter at all, but we will definitely remember some upsetting and exciting moments. We remember the painful knockout of the defending champion Germany by Mexico, we will remember Russia's stunning victory over Spain and we defintely will remember the remarkable rise of small-nation teams like Iceland and Croatia.

Other moments to remember is that Japan lost a winning game while 2-0 leading with less than 25 minutes but Belgium's counterattack snatched the win at last with stunning play 3-2 against Japan.

Of course the world will remember the moment when Messi missed a decisive penalty for Argentina that would bring victory against Iceland. Of course the world and the soccer lovers will remember the Cristiano Ronaldo's hat trick that did not only earned Portugal a thrilling draw against Spain, but also made history.

Finally, we all remember that the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) that was used for the first time in the World Cup. Though the VAR is impressive to be used in the any soccer match, it has one serious problem: There is one person in the field to make the final decision and that's one-field referee.

The Independent and Accuracy

Unbelievably, The Independent has changed and deleted most parts of the article after my critic about its exaggeration and almost lying about Afghanistan's administration position towards David Bekham's visit to Helmand. That is good sign, that means it was a telling criticism that made The Independent to rectify that errors.

That shows the tolerance of criticism and believing in accuracy of The Independent. We often come across some news that are published in some newspaper that is pure hogwash but still believed true. I occasionally find them in Afghan newspapers that reading them haunts me.

The point I criticized was not only on exaggerating but more it was humiliating to Afghan people. I personally can not tolerate any kinds of contemptuous comments against anyone, especially, my country. Bekham, went to Afghanistan for a goodwill visit to meet British troops in Helmand and support them. That is a great job and I am happy for that too.

But, I wished Bekham could come with a tiny plan that he could make donation for making a soccer field to those children who lost their parents in war and for those adults that wandering around in the field of poppy in Helmand that can be easily hired by Taliban.

Beckham visits Helmand

This news is on the Independent website that says David Beckham flies out to visit British troops in Helmand. But this part must be a joke:

The Afghan government was keen for Beckham to also travel north to spend time in the capital Kabul – which would have been a considerable coup for the administration, given that his celebrity extends to the Islamic Republic. However, the plan was vetoed at an early stage.

I found it a bit snobbish and naive. Everyone knows that Afghanistan is grappling with its insecurity and series of other problems and his visit as a soccer player have nothing to do with Afghan situation. Bechkahm is famous in UK and other European countries that soccer is considered a major sport in their lives but not in Afghanistan. I'm having doubts that if you could find a few people knowing Beckham in Afghanistan, let alone the government.

It is funny that the writer insistingly says that it would have been a considerable coup for the administration that his celebrity extends to the Islamic Republic. What a funny joke I ever heard of. Sometime, lying to make things important is too hard, like this one that brings a disgusting feeling to you.

Anyway, my cousin and I were a big fun of him in 2002 World Cup when we were in Dubai but when we moved to Afghanistan, due to lack of electricity that we had to light a candle at night, it was hard to remain a fan of Beckham, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and other Brazlian soccer players.