By James M. Dorsey Turkish football player Alpaslan Ozturk’s decision to risk fame and wealth by expressing support for the embattled Turkic Uighur minority in Xinjiang reflects pressures in China’s ties to Turkey, its most complex relationship in the Muslim world, and a key node on the Silk Road that Beijing hopes to revive with massive …
By James M. Dorsey Criticism this week by football player Ahmed Al-Merghani of general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s hard-handed repression of dissent and failure to defeat a mushrooming insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula signals mounting discontent in Egypt. Al-Merghani’s comments on his Facebook page are indicative, because they suggested the degree to which Al-Sisi’s cult-like popularity …
By James M. Dorsey Revived controversy over the integrity of Qatar’s successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup and persistent criticism of the conditions of migrant labour in the Gulf state appear to have stiffened Qatar’s back as it responds to attacks on multiple fronts, including judicial inquiries in Switzerland and the United States, …
By James M. Dorsey Recent months have witnessed a series of unrelated, nationwide protests in Iran by teachers demanding salary hikes as well as ethnic groups decrying government abuse and calling for greater rights. With the exception of the teachers, most of the protests erupted spontaneously sparked by incidents as well as pent-up anger and …
By James M. Dorsey The mushrooming governance scandal in world football body FIFA increasingly spotlights political, in addition to financial, corruption in global football. Revelations about government and corporate deals made to secure Germany’s hosting of the 2006 World Cup alongside the prominence of political figures in sports governance, frequently aligned with autocratic regimes, emphasises …
By James M. Dorsey Widely viewed as a shrewd financial investor, Qatar’s return on investment in soft power designed to position it as a progressive ally of world powers in the hope that they will come to the aid of the wealthy Gulf state in times of emergency is proving to be abysmal. Qatar has …
By James M. Dorsey After four years of engagement with its critics in a so-far failed bid to turn its hosting of the World Cup into a successful soft power tool, Qatar appears to have decided that the region’s tendency to intimidate those who don’t fall into line may be a more effective strategy. In doing so, Qatar …
By James M. Dorsey An Egyptian court has banned militant football fan groups or ultras as terrorist organisations in a bid to break the backbone of anti-government protests. The ruling pushes further underground groups that often offer despairing youth a rare opportunity to vent their pent-up anger and frustration peacefully. Ultras have for the past …
By James M. Dorsey Few are able to bridge Egypt’s deeply polarising divide between supporters and opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood, following the 2013 military coup that toppled president Mohammed Morsi. Mohammed Abu Trika, Egypt’s most celebrated and storied football player, is proving to be either the exception that proves the rule or an indication …
By James M. Dorsey A promise by Qatari Labour and Social Affairs minister Abdullah Saleh Mubarak Al-Khulaifi to reform the Gulf state’s controversial âkafalaâ, or labour sponsorship system, by the end of this year is likely to cut little ice with human rights and trade union activists, who four years after Qatar won the right …
By James M. Dorsey Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa has been elected president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for a second term and vice president of world football body FIFA amid unanswered questions about the AFC’s handling of corruption investigations and his apparent failure to enforce good governance in his own organisation. In an …
By James M. Dorsey A senior executive of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) allegedly requested in 2012 at least one of his subordinates to tamper with or hide documents related to enquiries by independent auditors and FIFA into management of the group by Mohammed Bin Hammam, the AFCâs ousted president and vice president of the …
By James M. Dorsey Presidential elections and tournament hosting in the world of football appear to be seldom won on the merits of a candidate or bidderâs proposition. Instead, the outcome of polls and bids are frequently the result of backslapping, backstabbing backroom politicking between global football managers and political leaders. World football is about …
By James M. Dorsey Israelâs Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) has demanded that notoriously racist club, Beitar Jerusalem, the bad boy of Israeli football, retract recent statements that it would maintain its policy of not hiring Palestinian players because of opposition by the teamâs militant, racist fan base. The demand comes as Israel is fighting …
By James M. Dorsey Egypt has moved closer to banning as terrorist organisations militant football groups that form the backbone of opposition to autocratic rule, with the arrest and pre-trial detention of five alleged members of the Ultras White Knights (UWK), the highly-politicised, street battle-hardened support group of storied Cairo club Zamalek SC. The five …
By James M. Dorsey A football pitch in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, home to Iranâs Arab minority, has emerged as a flashpoint of anti-government protest, at a time of rising Arab-Iranian tensions over the status of Shiâa Muslim minorities in the Arab world, the crisis in Yemen, and the outlines of a multilateral agreement …
By James M. Dorsey A resolution by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to postpone until November a decision to investigate Qatar on charges of violating the Forced Labour and Labour Inspection Conventions is likely to boost the Gulf stateâs ability to defeat any attempt to strip it of the right to host the 2022 World …
By James M. Dorsey The current Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, designed to prevent Iranian-backed forces from gaining power, symbolises the Gulfâs new assertiveness. This is unfolding as the various Gulf states seek to hedge their bets with different strategies that complement rather than replace the regional US security umbrella. Qatar, this month, signed a military …
By James M. Dorsey Legal and diplomatic battles in United Nations organisations and international sport associations involving charges of war crimes and efforts to suspend membership of one or the other are likely to shape future Israeli-Palestinian relations in the wake of last monthâs electoral victory by Benjamin Netanyahu. The contours of the coming battles …
By James M. Dorsey Long-simmering discontent in Ahwaz, the football-crazy, predominantly ethnic Arab capital of Iranâs Khuzestan province that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein unsuccessfully tried to exploit when he launched the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, exploded on the pitch earlier this month during an Asian championship League qualifier between the cityâs state-owned Foolad FC and …
By James M. Dorsey An Egyptian prosecutor has set the stage for the banning of a group of hard-core, militant football fans by charging them with accepting money and explosives from the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to stage last monthâs Cairo football riot in which 22 people were killed. The Prosecutor General, Hisham Barakat, said the …
By James M. Dorsey A warning by world soccer body FIFA president Sepp Blatter following talks this weekend with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani that Qatar needs to do more to improve the working and living conditions of its migrant workers is the latest signal that Qatar will have to take …
By James M. Dorsey A satirical video of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahuâs speech to the US Congress captures the essence of his message and his political strategy on the eve of Israeli elections. âThere are three things we must always remember: First Iran, and second Iran, and third Iran, Iran, Iran, again and again; …
By James M. Dorsey A just published study highlights how commerce and glitz are reinforcing support for autocracy by international sports associations, and undermining the International Olympic Committeeâs (IOC) newly found resolve to hold potential host cities to human rights standards to which world football body FIFA pays. The study by Andrew Zimbalist, Circus Maximus: The Economic …
By James M. Dorsey Campaigning for re-election, world football body FIFA president Sepp Blatter seems never to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. In an article in a FIFA magazine, Blatter commemorated International Womenâs Day by calling on Iran to lift its ban on women attending male sports events in stadia. In doing so, …
By James M. Dorsey One thing the biographies of Jihadi John, the Islamic Stateâs executioner of foreign hostages, and several of his European associates have in common is their passion for football and their dashed hopes of becoming professional players. They all belonged to amateur teams or bonded in part by playing football together. Like …
By James M. Dorsey An Egyptian cabinet decision to end the suspension of professional football in late March but reinstitute the ban on spectators attending matches could spark renewed clashes between militant fans and security forces. The decision against the backdrop of mounting evidence that Egyptian general-turned-President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has no apparent intention of easing …
By James M. Dorsey Recent football-related racism highlights European nationsâ tortured transition from ethnically relatively homogeneous to multicultural immigration societies amid a resurgence of entrenched racial, including anti-Semitic, attitudes that flourish in times of economic crisis and are not limited to Muslim communities. Fans across Europe have lined up on both sides of the racism …
By James M. Dorsey A stampede at a Cairo stadium earlier this month, much like a politically-loaded football brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said three years ago, is shining a spotlight on Egyptâs unreformed, unabashedly violent, and politically powerful police and security forces amid confusion over what precisely happened and how many …
By James M. Dorsey The United Arab Emirates has embarked on an all-out effort to broaden its regional influence and achieve global acceptance of its autocratic definition of terrorism that encompasses all non-violent, legitimate expressions of political Islam. The effort competes head on with Qatarâs pro-Islamist approach to soft power. It involves participation in the …
