Column | About God as a referee and the Hezbollah football club

Karim Benzema will play football in Saudi Arabia for 200 million euros per year. It is of course very nice, I understand that, and not only you and me, but also football players have to think about their future and their families. But it is not at all a question of money. Al-Ittihad, where he will play, is a big club, he says. “And I always wanted to live in Saudi Arabia. I’m a Muslim and it’s an Islamic country […] It’s loved and it’s beautiful.

I would like to know if Benzema would have wanted to play football in Saudi Arabia according to the rules that the ultra-conservative Saudi clerics proclaimed in a fatwa (Islamic decree) in 2005. Football was allowed, but without referees and on a pitch without lines . And violations must be judged on the basis of Sharia, Islamic law.

It was the golden age of extreme Islam, al-Qaeda (think 9/11) and fellow jihadists who were openly supported in some spiritual circles. However, football in Saudi Arabia has never been played with God as a referee; and which draws the line of demarcation between the clergy and the youth.

I came across the rules of the jihadist game in a new bookletor rather collection of essays on all sorts of aspects of football in the Middle East, Sports politics in the Middle East. It is the result of a collaboration between the political science project POMEPS and Georgetown University-Qatar. You can download it, it has no paywall, and it’s quite interesting.

Twenty years later, everything has changed in Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Revolution, according to the booklet. Even women can play football now. Setback: icing on the cake, the Saudis wanted to sponsor the Women’s World Cup which will start soon in Australia and New Zealand, but it did not happen. Host nations and players have rioted citing human rights in Saudi Arabia. FIFA chief Infantino was once again unhappy about this. These countries also do business with Saudi Arabia, right? “Here’s a double standard that I don’t really understand.” I do not say anything.

In Egypt, the government has hijacked football for its cause

But I want to continue on football and Islam. The Sunni Fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood has no objection to football because on the pitch you can so skillfully recruit young people to your cause. In Egypt, they had a lot of success with that, until the government hijacked football. President Mubarak called the national team players before the game to inspire them. Now under Sisi, the Muslim Brotherhood is mostly in jail.

The Lebanese Shiite fundamentalist organization Hezbollah goes one step further and uses football to bring about social change. And a lot is invested in it: the best training facilities, football schools. His Beirut Football Club Al Ahed gave Lebanon its biggest football success of 2019 by winning the Asian Cup, 1-0 against a North Korean club. This year, Al-Ahed once again became champion of Lebanon.

I personally remember an interview with a Hezbollah official, owner of a local football club, in his office in Baalbek, during which we first reviewed the state of Dutch football before come to the point. Cruyff and Gullit and so on, so a long time ago and a very different era of (Dutch) football than today.

Caroline Rolands is a Middle East expert and separates fact from hype every week.