Iraqi soccer team fears 'face-off'

AUGUST 23, 2004
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

          LAST WEEK'S COLUMN about the Olympic Games elicited an interesting e-mail from a reader who caught my piece on the Internet on one of several conservative websites where my political columns appear.

            “Nice shot,” he wrote, “but I think you might want to very quickly edit your piece…paying special attention to the last paragraph.” He included a link to an August 19 article that appeared in SportsIllustrated.com entitled “Unwilling Participants,” that featured interviews with two players and the coach of Iraq’s soccer team.

            In my column, I had argued “Iraq’s soccer team made its first appearance at the Olympics in 16 years…They were barely able to put a team together, having disbanded after the war started over a year ago. Under Saddam Hussein’s regime, they were “coached” by Saddam’s son Uday who employed torture to motivate the players…These Iraqis can thank America, led by George W. Bush, for liberating their country and returning it to them.”

            But the SI column would lead one to believe the team as a whole is neither willing to express thanks for their new-found freedom to play the sport they love nor to credit George W. Bush for liberating their country and returning it to them. 

            It appears the real rub is one of Bush’s recent campaign ads that showcases Afghanistan and Iraq as the two newest democracies that sent teams to this year’s Olympic Games in Athens. Iraqi midfielder Salih Sadir said, “Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign. He can find another way to advertise himself.” Midfielder Ahmed Manajid was more adamant: “How will [Bush] meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes.”

            The team’s coach, Adnan Hamad offered a small clarification: “My problems are not with the American people, they are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?”

            Several observations are in order.

            Two players and one coach do not make up a soccer team. There are eleven players on the field and at least a half-dozen more on the bench. I wonder if the entire team shares the opinions of the three quoted in the SI article.

            Secondly, Sadir, may have only been objecting to the Bush campaign’s use of the Iraq war “to advertise himself.” Politicizing the war against terrorism is a valid criticism that is often made by both liberals and conservatives here in America aimed at both political parties.

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Sadir formerly played for Iraq’s professional soccer team in Najaf, currently the site of a showdown between coalition forces and Moktada al-Sadr. And Manajid is from Fallujah, another hotbed of insurgency and terrorism. Taking these factors into consideration, it is no wonder these two players are reluctant to praise America’s liberation of Iraq in such a public forum. They will have to go back and face their own people when the Olympics are over.

            But something else may be at work. It involves the concept known as “face,” something we in the West have difficulty understanding. “Face” is defined as “having a high status in the eyes of one's peers… a mark of personal dignity.” Although we tend to associate “face” with the Far East, in particular China, it can also be found in Middle Eastern and Latin cultures, and in inner-city gangs.

            People from “face” cultures tend to hide their true feelings, being reluctant to express the way they really think and feel in public. A website devoted to the concept explains: “Face saving (or saving face) refers to maintaining a good self image. People who are involved in a conflict and secretly know they are wrong will often not admit that they are wrong because they don’t want to admit they made a mistake. They therefore continue the conflict, just to avoid the embarrassment of looking bad.”

            In the sea of negative reporting about conditions in Iraq, it is tempting to throw in the towel and admit Iraq’s soccer team simply hates America and to believe otherwise is to kid ourselves.

            But I refuse to do so. I simply cannot accept that the Iraqi soccer team would prefer a return to their “training” under the tortuous methods of Uday Hussein.

            Humans desire to be free. It is so deeply engrained in all of us that I have to believe the taste of freedom to these Iraqis is so exhilarating, they prefer it to what they were forced to endure in the past, whether they are willing to admit it in public or not. n

Gregory J. Rummo is an author and syndicated columnist. His latest book, “The View from the Grass Roots—Another Look,” was just published. Visit GregRummo.com  for more information.