Soccer and Political Protests in MENA Countries

Strategic Sectors | Culture & Society Soccer and Political Protests Panorama in MENA Countries James M. dorsey the social, political and cultural history of the re- Senior Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International gion,” said historian Shaun Lopez in a journal arti- Studies, Nanyang Technological University cle in 2009 lamenting the failure of Middle East Co-Director, Institute of Fan Culture, University of scholars to include sports in their research.1 That Strategic Sectors | Culture & Society Würzburg gap in scholarship is all the more stunning given “the seminal importance of football and other sports in the region or the central role athletics No study, analysis or history of modern society is plays in the formation of national identity in most complete without a focus on the nexus of sport, so- Middle Eastern and North African countries,” ciety, culture, politics and development. The power Lopez wrote. In fact, the influence of politics on the of this nexus is nowhere more evident than in soc- region’s soccer is so pervasive that it shapes cer – the world’s most global cultural practice. teams formed by Middle Eastern and North African Through their everyday involvement in soccer, peo- immigrant communities. ple – players, managers and fans – define who they 295 are, as well as who they think others are. This is particularly true in the Middle East and North autocratic Fathers Africa. Countries like Qatar, the United Arab Emir- ates, Bahrain and Turkey are positioning themselves Unlike other regions, such as Latin America, Africa, as global sport hubs to heighten their diplomatic and Europe and Asia, where a significant number of economic influence and employ soft power to em- scholars and authors have addressed soccer in its bed themselves at multiple levels in the international various regional aspects, the Middle East and community to enhance their security. Similarly, the North Africa has been the subject of only very lim- revolutionary trans-regional impact of sports is sig- ited research by a small number of scholars fo- nificant; witness the social revolution on the West cused on a specific country or territory. Bank sparked by the defiance of the Palestinian Central to an understanding of the importance of women’s soccer team in playing, in 2011, visiting soccer to Middle Eastern autocrats, as well as the Women’s Soccer World Champion Japan in the Ter- pitch’s prominent role as a battlefield for greater ritories’ two most conservative cities, Hebron and freedom, social justice, dignity and national, ethnic, Nablus, where militant Islamists denounced them as religious and gender rights, is the concept of Pal- 2013 whores. estinian-American scholar Hisham Sharabi in “The study of sports, and football in particular, ar- which the autocrat projects himself as a father fig- guably the most popular form of cultural perfor- ure who franchises his authority at different levels mance in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East, of society. In many ways, Sharabi’s concept of has much to add to our current understanding of neo-patriarchism is rooted in the notion of the Mediterranean Yearbook 1 lOpez, Shaun. “On Race, Sports and Identity: Picking Up the Ball in Middle East Studies.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, No. 41, Med. p. 359-361, 2009. IE mother and father of a nation that harks back to the every football match, there were riots and youth Arab struggle for independence in the early 20th demonstrations,” wrote Said Chikhi5 in his descrip- Panorama century and that positioned leaders as the equiva- tion of a wave of protests that swept Algeria in the lent of parents entitled to raise their children. 2 late 1980s. Saad Zaghloul, the leader of the nationalist Wafd A 2007 diplomatic cable sent by the US embassy in Party, and a founder of crowned Cairo Soccer Algiers and disclosed by Wikileaks linked a soccer Club Al Ahly SC as a bastion of anti-monarchical, protest in the desert city of Bou Saada to demon- republican sentiment, was Egypt’s father. His wife strations in the western port city of Oran sparked by Safiyya was the country’s mother the year that he the publication of a highly contentious list of govern- was exiled by the British, sparking the 1919 Egyp- ment housing recipients. The cable warned that “this tian revolution. kind of disturbance has become commonplace, and As a result, like in Franco’s Spain, where soccer’s appears likely to remain so unless the government mass appeal and a lack of cheap alternative enter- offers diversions other than soccer and improves the tainment positioned the beautiful game as a light- quality of life of its citizens.” ning rod for dissent, soccer, for much of the past Strategic Sectors | Culture & Society three decades, constituted the only major battle- ground that rivalled Islam in the creation of alterna- By the time the Arab popular tive public space in a swath of land stretching from uprisings erupted in December the Gulf to the Atlantic coast of Africa. Away from 2010, soccer had emerged as a key the glare of the international media, soccer pro- vided a venue to release pent-up anger and frus- non-religious, non-governmental tration and struggle for various rights. By the time institution capable of successfully the Arab popular uprisings erupted in December confronting security force-dominated 2010, soccer had emerged as a key non-religious, repressive regimes and militant non-governmental institution capable of success- 296 fully confronting security force-dominated repres- Islamists sive regimes and militant Islamists. Scholars Ed- uardo P. Archetti and Amilcar G. Romero asserted Mass protests in early 2011 initially suggested that already two decades ago that “football does not Algeria would join the first wave of Arab nations only reflect society or culture but is part of the way whose leaders had been toppled. The government that a society models some of its central existen- quelled the unrest by hiking salaries and social tial, political and moral issues.”3 spending on the back of its oil and gas revenues, which have enabled it to build up foreign reserves in excess of $186 billion. The government also benefit- arenas of agitation and Protest ted from the fact that many Algerians, who vividly recall the violence of the 1990s that left some Soccer stadiums became arenas of political agita- 100,000 people dead, have become cautious be- tion and social protest in soccer-crazy countries cause of the chaos in post-Gaddafi Libya and the like Algeria and Egypt4 as repression increased civil war in Syria. and encompassed not just popular neighbour- As a result, a tacit understanding emerged between 2013 hoods but stadiums too. “The sport stadia were Algerian soccer fans and security forces that football next to register the heat of social discontent. At supporters could express their grievances as long as 2 barOn, Beth. Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender and Politics. Berkley: University of California Press, 2005. 3 arChetti, Eduardo P. & Romero, amilCar G. “Death and Violence in Argentinian football” in: GiulianOtti, Richard, bOnney, Norman & hepWOrth, Mediterranean Yearbook Mike (eds.). Football, Violence and Social Identity. Abingdon OX: Routledge, 1991. 4 besheer, Mohamed Gamal. Kitab al-Ultras (The Ultras Book). Cairo: Dar Diwan, 2011. 5 Med. Med. ChiKhi, Said. “The worker, the prince and the fact of life: The mirage of modernity in Algeria,” in: el-Kenz, Ali (ed.). The Challenge of Modernity. IE London: Codesria, 1991. they did so within the confines of the stadiums. An ing for oneself and questioning and challenging of upsurge in soccer-related violence in Algeria in late authority. It is a shift across the political and social 2012 serves, however, as a warning that frustration spectrum: liberals resisting religious precepts, chil- Panorama is mounting with the failure of the country’s geron- dren questioning their parents, and young Islamists tocracy, in control since independence, to share challenging their ideological elders. “These things power with a younger generation, create jobs and take time and they are done through conflict, trouble address housing problems. and confrontation and then they unfold,” said Egyp- tian author, activist and writer Ezzedine Choukri- Fishere.6 a High-Stakes Political Cat-and-Mouse Often militant, highly politicised, violence-prone soc- Contest cer fans or ultras shifted their protests from the sta- dium to the square as a result of the suspension of Attempts by autocratic leaders to employ soccer to professional soccer in countries like Tunisia, Egypt, improve their tarnished images and detract attention Libya, Syria and Algeria. They frequently played a from unpopular policies turned soccer into a high- unique role in helping protesters seeking to rid them- Strategic Sectors | Culture & Society stakes political cat-and-mouse contest between selves of the yoke of repressive rule, economic mis- fans and autocrats and Islamists for control of the management and corruption to break through the pitch and a counterbalance to jihadi employment of barrier of fear erected by neo-patriarchal autocrats soccer as a bonding and recruitment tool. All par- that had condemned them to silence and passivity ticipants in the game banked on the fact that only until then.7 soccer could capture the deep-seated emotion, passion and commitment evoked by Islam among a majority of the population in the Middle East and the Perfect Playground North Africa. For neo-patriarchal regimes, soccer was the perfect 297 playground. Dictatorial regimes were not simply su- An upsurge in soccer-related perimposed on societies gasping for freedom. Arab violence in Algeria in late 2012 autocracies may have lacked popular support and serves, however, as a warning that credibility, but the repressive reflexes that created barriers of fear were internalised and reproduced at frustration is mounting with the virtually every layer of society.

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