Opium fields

By Salama Ahmed Salama *

Like other nations, Arabs are excited about the Cup. In recent years, fascination with football has soared to new heights in Arab countries: football tournaments are one of the most important collective activities engaged in regularly in most Arab countries. It is no wonder, therefore, that the president of Tunisia should declare the day on which his country's team was scheduled to play against Britain an official holiday. He knew that no one would miss the game. Similarly, it is no coincidence that our People's Assembly ended its session and began its summer vacation on the day the Cup began.

Football has become a source of hope and despair, joy and sorrow, the most popular of the activities that are self-initiated, freely exercised and spontaneous in the Arab countries. The game dominates most political, intellectual and creative activities. Football clubs have virtually replaced political parties. People are free to cheer for one club or the other without compulsion or lies. Football clubs are forums for the exercise of democracy, the free expression of hopes and aspirations, frustration, victory and expectations. The game is the only sphere in which people are permitted to participate genuinely, in which the opposition is not punished, tormented or constrained. Equality of rights and duties is guaranteed. For this reason, the state's concern with the problems of football clubs is comparable to its interest in reforming the education system, or privatising banks.

In countries where formal political action is stifled, and where creativity, scientific achievement and intellectual endeavours are suppressed, football is the only opium the people can afford. Football has become the one and only concern of young people, an outlet for their repressed energy. This energy is not only expended in playing football or other games, but also in creating momentum, engaging in the social and cultural activities that are an intrinsic part of the game. This obsession with football may explain the fact that most of the candidates seeking careers in the diplomatic corps or in the media were found to know little about anything outside the scope of football and its icons. Young Egyptians and Arabs know little of their culture or the concerns of their nation: football is their prime concern, and pop singers take up the rest of their time.

Far be it from me to suggest that this is a bad thing. The World Cup is a show of excellence, strategy, planning and physical fitness. Officials responsible for youth and sports in the Arab world would do well to heed the lessons it can teach. But excelling in football is not the only means of improving our nation. We need to open other possibilities for genuine participation in political, social and economic activity. The media should focus on channels of thought and culture that enrich our lives, perhaps even as much as it concentrates on spreading the culture of football.