Sunday
Nov222009
Soccer nationalism
Ursula Lindsey
Egyptian crowds near the Algerian Embassy (Elijah Zarwan)On Thursday night, out in Downtown Cairo for a drink, I was startled to see a well-known alley blocked by riot police at both ends. It turned out they were there to protect the Air Algeria offices from Egyptian soccer fans. Later that night, protesters outside the Algerian Embassy in Zamalek clashed with police. The soccer-inspired nastiness on both sides continues, surprisingly long.
So after all the ridiculous posturing and dispiriting violence of the last week, it's a pleasure to read this editorial by Al Shurouq newspaper editor Hany Shukrallah.
Shukrallah wonders:
"Don't you think there's something exaggerated in this discourse about dreams, hopes, historical moments and historical victories; in the scenes of tears, hugs, hurrahs, marches of millions [...] Isn't there something shameful in comparing a soccer game, however important it may be in the soccer world, to the construction of the pyramids and the High Dam and the miracle of the 1973 crossing [of the Suez Canal]? Don't you think, dear reader [...] that there's a sort of cheapening of our history, of its true heroes and accomplishments and sacrifices [...], in which more than 11 Egyptians participated?"
After deploring the complicity of the media in inciting hatred of the other team and country ("Overnight, Algeria has transformed into Egypt's number one enemy, and the Algerian people have turned into the prime target of Egyptians' hatred and contempt"), Shukrallah argues that it's the deterioration of social and political life in the Arab world that has led people to "search for easy contests, areas in which to let loose our stored up anger and frustration and feelings of humiliation, as long as this costs us no effort, and exposes us to no punishment [...]."
He concludes: "The wonder of soccer nationalism is that it doesn't require citizens--just 'supporters.'"
Egyptian supporter fighting police near Algerian Embassy (Elijah Zarwan)
Reader Comments (7)
I loathe the pogrom-like reactions in Algeria & Egypt, but one thing that would really prompt me to attack a foreign embassy or airline company is reading "soccer" instead of "football"...
The editorials and comments in the Algerian press are also quite something btw, including some isolated occurences of Morocco-bashing, probably too good to be resisted for some editorialists, and recurrent use of the "one million chouhada" theme...
one thing that would really prompt me to attack a foreign embassy or airline company is reading “soccer” instead of “football”…
Truth!
As Alle put it, Aboutirka seems to have a larger militant following than OBL; and Coach Saadane a greater base of supporters than Droukdel. Too bad the Algerians are out celebrating and having heart attacks instead of paying mind to the union protests that were scheduled for last week. The whole circus is quite wretched.
i could be wrong, but is there any room to look at this phenomenon as one manifestation of a deeper current of discontent in the socio-political climates in question? misguided as it might be, there is always something important in 'regular' civilians throwing rocks at riot police--there is something fundamental in that act, a certain disdain for the regime that is finding voice in the familiar idiom of soccer rivalries.
again, don't get me wrong: soccer feuds can be some of the most pointless and hateful violence civil society can experience sometimes, but then again, it seems like there's a deeper emotional/spiritual rift going on, no? it's almost as if the fans are waiting for the moment that the police arrive so they can have a chance to fight back. and i think there's something wonderful and absolutely legitimate in that, cloaked as it may be in some seemingly non-political vocabulary.
reminds me of a thing orwell once said, which i return to again and again (and i think it applies here if you change some of the nouns): "I have no particular love for the idealized 'worker' as he appears in the bourgeois Communist's mind, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on."
I agree with Alex.
Nowadays football (or sport) works has a scape valve for the population. This is true for Egipt and any other country, like Portugal.
In 1970 two central american countries started a war due to a match.
Productivity in Portugal raises during the weeek after a national team victory.
So Football nowadays isn't just sport. It's a lot of things more.
Sorry sorry for using the word "soccer"! I didn't realize it was so incendiary!
I would just say that I am very skeptical of the view that there is something inspiring in Egyptian football (see? lesson learned) fans clashing with police. Remember, why are they clashing with police? Because they'd like to burn the Algerian Embassy down. Yes, clearly there is a terrible general frustration that's manifesting itself here, but it's manifesting itself in the most empty, useless, odious way. If the crowd could have found an actual Algerian to target, all their animosity to the police would had been redirected.
u.
A football match between reasonably good teams is one of the most dangerous things one can witness in Algeria. They regularly degenerate into manifestations of all sorts of anger. They usually start with some partisan element from one team's supporters and roll off in a pretty unified way in the direction of the police or some element of the local authorities. You do not see boys from JSK and Setif fighting with each other for long before the authorities get between them and everyone remembers who the "real enemy" is -- that is less true between JSK and MC Alger though (the latter of which is a crummy team anyhow). The Algerians have let the boys have a free hand after the 1:0 win, so nobody thinks the government's trying to be that heavy handed killjoy bureaucracy it actually is and start smashing up its offices and police personal. If the police tried to protect the Osracom shops that were burned up, there's be a very serious problem in Algiers right now.
I have only watched one Egyptian football match inside the country and I can't say anything about the mass tendency but it looks like the government is quite good at pushing the people out of its direction. Like Ursula writes, these people are running around chanting the most racist and illiterate things, to borrow IbnKafka's terms, as if they were looking for the ghetto in the midst of a pogrom, seemingly unconcerned with anything that actually has any impact on their daily struggle. If these boys were out looking to smash up synagogues or churches (not a far off possibility in Egypt), and the police were getting in his way, I'd figure that's the role of the government to put those punks in their place. If there is a question of speaking truth to power, there don't seem to be many Egyptians (or Algerians) in the streets doing that; they're looking more like they're just taking orders from the more abhorrent sources. The full force of the regime at work, I'd say.
[...] continues to simmer, as many start probing the conflict for its political implications. The Arabist quotes Al Shurouq editor Hany Shukrallah who argues (in Arabic) that social and political life in the Arab [...]