A well earned zero

By Salama A Salama

---

Everyone is upset because we failed to win the hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, even after spending some $50 million to push through the Egyptian bid. This failure is only part of a bigger picture. Our political life is in dire straits for similar reasons. Sports in today's world reflect the achievements of a nation in terms of political awareness, economic success, social progress and youthful vigour. What achievements have we made? Some would have us start a parliamentary investigation about the failure to win the FIFA bid. This would be a perfect way to divert public anger. For years, the best way to bury crucial national issues has been to refer them to People's Assembly committees.

Since the FIFA bid started, the Egyptian committee in charge has played down the obstacles facing our application, giving the public the impression that Egypt can win, effortlessly even, because of its history, civilisation, security and status. No matter that everyone knew that South Africa was miles ahead of us. Our officials resorted to naive advertising and sporadic conviviality and hung on to every sweet word of Joseph Blatter, the FIFA chief. No one seemed to pay much attention to the tangible factors governing international relations. No one paused to examine how FIFA, an organisation used to high- level wheeling and dealing, truly operates.

The delegation we sent to Zurich to present the bid was clearly short of figures with international repute, in sports or anything else. And just to remind you, Egypt has no track record in organising world-class sports events. The last time Egypt reached the football finals was in 1934. In short, our chances were remote right from the start. So, why did we bother?

The officials in charge of the bid have justified the failure by hinting that Europe is biased to South Africa, that votes were bought, and so on and so forth. No one, however, is addressing the question of why South Africa won 14 votes, Morocco 10, and Egypt 0.

We often forget that the ubiquitous forces of globalisation do not care about past glories. What the world around us cares about is the present of a country and its future prospects. What matters is a nation's political vitality, level of democracy and freedom, rates of economic growth and forms of public participation. Globalisation is about stability based on justice, not brought about through repression. It is about success in getting things done and openness to the world. You just cannot hope to win a bid for a world-class event just because you have stadiums, football fans and Pyramids.

This is the sad part: the fact that those in charge of the bid didn't see where we stand. In everything that really matters, we deserve a big zero. Our bid for political reform and democratisation has stalled. When we're not living in the past and its glories we are discussing a future that never seems to come. Our ruling party politicians have a plethora of dossiers, just as the FIFA one, on which they go back and forth without getting anything done. We love to speak of new thinking, of Shura Council elections in which the NDP is going to run against itself, of the reform document issued at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, but little is ever achieved.

The zero we got in football is something we deserve across the board.