By James M. Dorsey The death of at least 40 militants, highly politicised, and street battle-hardened Egyptian football fans in clashes with security forces raises the stakes for General-turned-President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisiâs efforts to suppress political dissent. The incident is one of the worst in Egyptian sporting history and the latest in a number of …
By James M. Dorsey Projecting an image of being politically and culturally on the cutting edge, the United Arab Emirates carefully picks its battles. Participation in the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) has projected the United Arab Emirates as a military force to be reckoned with. Football is the …
By James M. Dorsey Qatari sports executives, in a bid to refute calls for depriving Qatar of its 2022 World Cup hosting rights, have asked their human rights and trade union critics as well as world football body FIFA to give them more time to address criticism of the Gulf stateâs kafala or sponsorship system …
By James M. Dorsey Egyptian-general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisiâs efforts to lend legitimacy to parliamentary elections scheduled for this spring have gotten off to a murky start with the appointment of a controversial, reportedly United Arab Emirates-backed, human rights NGO as one of five foreign election monitors. The appointment of Norway-based Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD) alongside four …
By James M. Dorsey The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has dropped any pretention of standing up for universal standards for equality in sports by endorsing bans on women attending football matches in stadia. In doing so, the AFC has confirmed policies adopted by the Asian group, as well as world football body FIFA, that effectively …
By James M. Dorsey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoganâs illiberal policies have targeted the media, the judiciary, the police, militant football fans, and anti-government protesters. Now they threaten to claim yet another victim: the game of football itself. In a major blow to troubled Turkish football, Yildiz Holding, a conservative conglomerate known for its confectionary and biscuit business and …
By James M. Dorsey The attacks in Paris on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, as well as two French police officers, have prompted analysts and the media to often jump to hasty conclusions. Terms such as intelligence failure and Al-Qaeda are liberally employed with no clear definition of what they mean …
By James M. Dorsey Just like Al-Qaedaâs audacious attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on 11 September 2001, the raid by suspected jihadist militants in Paris on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo will have far-reaching repercussions on multiculturalism. The pursuit of multiculturalism was an attempt by …
By James M. Dorsey A decision by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to abandon plans to adopt a unified contract for domestic workers increases pressure on Qatar to significantly revamp its controversial labour regime in a bid to fend off efforts to deprive it of its right to host the 2022 World Cup. It also …
By James M. Dorsey FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Husseinâs announcement that he will challenge the world football bodyâs four-time president Sepp Blatter in elections later this year has definitively turned the poll into a battle for the groupâs future. A vote for the prince is at least a vote against the FIFA president …
By James M. Dorsey Palestine has set a new benchmark for nations like the Kurds and the Kosovars, who see football as a key part of their toolbox to achieve statehood, with its qualification for this monthâs Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup even if the Palestinian road to statehood is increasingly pockmarked by seemingly …
By James M. Dorsey 2022 World Cup host Qatar has announced a series of reforms to improve working and living conditions of its majority migrant labour population that address material concerns, but fall short of recommendations made in a government-sponsored study and demands of trade union and human rights activists. The litmus test for Qatarâs …
By James M. Dorsey A Saudi-led proxy war against Iran playing out in Syria and Iraq has expanded onto the football pitch with a last minute decision by the Palestinian national team to cancel a friendly against Iran. The cancellation, officially on technical grounds, came barely two weeks before Iran meets two of its Gulf nemeses, the …
By James M. Dorsey Qatar has booked two recent successes in what has become an uphill struggle to improve its tarnished image: a papering over of its rift with Saudi Arabia and the UAE sparked by Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and reports that it may be interested in acquiring London Premier League club …
By James M. Dorsey More than three years into Syriaâs brutal civil war, Syrian Kurds have carved out an entity of their own close to the border with Turkey. Their battle against Islamic State (IS), the jihadist group that has conquered chunks of Syria and Iraq, for Kobani, a stoneâs throw from the Syrian-Turkish border, symbolises …
By James M. Dorsey The adoption of a human rights declaration by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that was designed to shield wealthy Gulf monarchies including 2022 World Cup host Qatar from criticism by human rights and trade union activists is likely to increase pressure on the sports-focused Gulf state to significantly alter its controversial …
By James M. Dorsey Egyptian and Turkish football pitches are set to re-emerge as battlegrounds between militant, street battle-hardened fans and authoritarian leaders in a life and death struggle that involves legal proceedings to brand the supporters as terrorists and efforts to undermine their widespread popular base. Egyptian fans, barely a week after storming a …
By James M. Dorsey Mounting anger among Saudi football clubs at their subjugation to quotas designed to encourage employment of Saudi nationals and reduce dependence on foreign labour illustrates problems encountered by wealthy Gulf countries in balancing the contradictory demands of labour markets, often lopsided demographics, social contracts involving a cradle-to-grave welfare state that creates …
By James M. Dorsey Wealthy Gulf nations have agreed on measures to improve the working and living conditions of migrant workers who constitute a substantial segment, if not the majority, in a number of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. The measures constitute a bid to fend off more far-reaching demands by human rights …
By James M. Dorsey Qatar is signalling the rejection of demands of human rights and trade union activists to grant trade union and collective bargaining rights to its majority migrant worker population with the detention and likely deportation of more than 100 predominantly South Asian labourers who went on strike to protest low pay as …
By James M. Dorsey A football brawl in Israelâs politically most loaded derby and an alleged subsequent raid by the Israeli military on the offices of Israelâs foremost Palestinian football club reflects a hardening of the Israeli-Palestinian divide as Israel debates legislation that would emphasise the Jewish national rather than the democratic nature of the …
By James M. Dorsey Human rights groups and trade unions have stepped up pressure on Qatar to reform its restrictive labour system, and have expanded their campaign to include all six wealthy members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The activists hope that Qatar may move quicker on promised reforms, given that the integrity of …
By James M. Dorsey Wealthy Gulf states have invited Jordan and Morocco to compete in future Gulf Cups as part of a bid to strengthen their fragile six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at a time that they have at best papered over deep rifts within the group. The invitation follows an earlier stalled attempt to …
By James M. Dorsey Moroccoâs refusal to host next monthâs 2014 African Cup of Nations football tournament out of fear that it could import the Ebola virus from West Africa spotlights complex relations between the continentâs Arab and sub-Saharan nations as well as the non-transparent inner workings of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), a …
By James M. Dorsey With the absence of labour rights in the Gulf under fire as a result of Qatarâs successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, Gulf states are likely to take heart from a recent study that asserts that authoritarian regimes in the oil-rich Middle East and China have contributed more to …
By James M. Dorsey Lurking in the background of world football body FIFAâs talks with Qatar Airways to replace its Dubai rival Emirates as a sponsor is the escalating hostility between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as a result of their divergent attitudes towards political Islam. Officially, Emiratesâ decision to end its $200m relationship …
By James M. Dorsey A recent school shooting in the US state of Washington and a lone wolfâs assault on the Canadian parliament in Ottawa are but two of the latest headline-grabbing incidents of home-grown violence. One had nothing to do with politics, the other is classified as a terrorist attack perpetrated by a jihadist …
By James M. Dorsey When Ramazan Kizil established Dalkurd FF, one of Europeâs most successful immigrant football teams, in a remote town in northern Sweden, he dreamt of one day raising the Swedish and the Kurdish flag alongside one another in a European championship. These days, Kizilâs goals are more immediate: aiding embattled Kurdish fighters …
By James M. Dorsey Football fans exploiting stadia as contested public space emerged more than three years ago as a key force in anti-government protests that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and opposition to subsequent military rule. With stadia closed to spectators for much of the period since then, protesting students backed by militant football …
By James M. Dorsey Mounting tension between Israel and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem have spilt onto Israeli Palestinian football pitches in Israel proper as Israel swings towards ultra-nationalists that make Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu look like the best card in a bad hand. Israeli human rights and legal advocacy …
