Political tensions build in Egyptian soccer

By James M. Dorsey

Political differences between Egyptian soccer players and fans are spilling on to the street of Cairo as Egypt seeks to fend off possible suspension by world soccer body FIFA.

In an escalation of tension with fans, players in Egypt’s premier and second league are gearing up for a demonstration in front of the sports ministry to demand the resumption of professional soccer suspended since a politically loaded brawl in February in which 74 supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC were killed.

The demonstration highlights tensions with fans that go beyond vows by militant, highly-politicized, street battle-hardened Al Ahly fans to prevent a resumption of soccer until justice has been served for the death of their comrades in the Port Said brawl.

The brawl, which widely is believed to have been provoked by security forces in a bid to punish the ultras for their key role in the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak and violent opposition to the military that ruled Egypt until the election in July of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in the country’s first democratic poll, sparked the banning of soccer for most of this year.

Frustrated with the slow moving legal proceedings against 74 people, including nine security officials, accused of responsibility for the Port Said incident and the lack of reform of soccer, Al Ahly ultras last month stormed the grounds where the club’s players were training as well as television studios and the headquarters of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA). They demanded a clean-up of Egyptian soccer and media, whom they accuse of corruption and fanning the flames of confrontation, and reform of the security forces.

The ultras further demanded that the interior ministry’s police and security’s forces -- the country’s most despised institution widely viewed as the brutal enforcers of repression under Mr. Mubarak – be deprived of responsibility for security in the stadiums. They also called for the resignation of the boards of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) and Al Ahly as well as the withdrawal of the candidacy of Mubarak era officials, among whom world soccer body FIFA executive committee member Hani Abou-Reida, as candidates in upcoming EFA elections.

Ultras groups across Egypt constitute the country’s second largest, most organized civic group after Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s foremost political grouping.

"We will never let the football come back in Egypt unless the field is clean from corruption," said a leader of the Al Ahly Ultras.

The EFA has said that professional soccer would resume on October 17.

In a statement on Facebook, a newly founded group of players, The Voice of Sportsmen, said that it was “extremely important that football competitions are resumed because this is our job and our sole source of income. We created that page to send our message to authorities and make our voice heard.  We also want all Egyptian sportsmen to join us… We would like to fully stress on our support for the rights of retribution for the Port Said martyrs, we want swift justice through the legal channels. But that has nothing to do with football resumption," the statement said.

Many Egyptian second-division players, who are usually poorly paid, have complained that they could ill-afford the consequences of the protracted suspension. Their concern was echoed by players for premier league clubs.

Relations between fans and players have much like Egyptian politics been on a rollercoaster since the fall of Mr. Mubarak. Tensions in the first post-Mubarak year made way for a period of reconciliation in the wake of the Port Said brawl, the worst incident in Egyptian sport history, which prompted three Al Ahly players who also formed part of Egypt’s national squad to retire.

Within days Al Ahly militants, responding to an outpour of sympathy from across Egypt including militants of Zamalek, apologized on an especially created Facebook page named “We are sorry Shika” to Zamalek winger Mahmoud Abdel-Razek aka Shikabala, widely viewed as Egypt’s top player, for routinely abusing him verbally during their clubs’ derbies. The abuse frequently led to Shikabala and Al Ahly fans trading insults in heated exchanges.

Breaking with the tradition of soccer players standing on the side lines of popular revolts in the Middle East and North Africa, if not supporting autocratic leaders, starred Al; Ahly striker Mohamed Abou-Treika last month boycotted his club’s Super Cup match against ENPPI, Egypt’s first domestic match since the match suspension, in solidarity with the ultras. His decision symbolized the struggles in virtually every Egyptian institution between post-Mubarak reformers and supporters of the Mubarak-era status quo ante.

Fuelling the growing gap between fans and players is what sociologist Ian Taylor described as resistance to and rejection of the upwardly mobile move of players from their working class origins to a middle class with a Peter Stuyvesant-like jet set lifestyle.  “The player has been incorporated into the bourgeois world, his self-image and behaviour have become increasingly managerial or entrepreneurial, and soccer has become for the player, a means to personal (rather than sub-cultural) success,” Mr. Taylor wrote in an analysis of British soccer violence that in the Middle East and North is reinforced by the political and psychological divide rooted in the neo-patriarchal nature of Arab autocracies.

The ultras booked a first victory in their latest campaign with the EFA’s decision to disqualify Mr. Abou Reida’s candidacy in election scheduled for this month for the soccer body’s presidency.

Egyptian media reports quoting EFA spokesman Azmi Megahed said that FIFA had threatened to suspend the soccer body if it were proven that Mr. Abou-reida was disqualified as a result of government interference. FIFA has reportedly denied issuing such a threat.

Mr. Abou-Reida, a member of Mr. Mubarak’s disbanded National Democratic Party, was suspended on the basis of a court ruling that he had already served as an EFA official for two consecutive terms and could only run again in four years’ time.

Mr. Abou-Reida is challenging the decision and has denied allegations by the ultras that he played a role in a decision by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration of Sport that overturned an EFA ban on his hometown club, Al Masry SC, for two years because of the Port Said incident which occurred during a match against Al Ahly in its stadium.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Trade unions hold Qatar responsible for workplace deaths

By James M. Dorsey

International trade unions have charged in a complaint to the International Labour Organization (ILO) that Qatar’s refusal to allow migrant workers to freely unionize violates international standards and is responsible for the Gulf state’s high rate of workplace deaths.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Building and Woodworkers' International (BWI), which claim to represent 175 million workers in 153 countries, have threatened to launch a global boycott of the 2022 World Cup if its host, Qatar, fails, to comply with internationally recognized labour standards.

Qatar is expected to import up to 1 million migrant workers to work on infrastructure projects linked to the hosting of the World Cup. The Qatar 2022 World Cup organizing committee has said that it will ensure contractors adhere to international labor laws.

Qatar has repeatedly denied that it exploits foreign labour. “The Ministry has received no complaint of forced labour and it is inconceivable that such a thing exists in Qatar as the worker may break his contract and return to his country whenever he wishes and the employer cannot force him to remain in the country against his will," the ministry said in a letter in June to Human Rights Watch in response to a damning report by the group.

Nonetheless, Qatar has rejected ITUC demands that workers be allowed to organize and move freely and abolish its sponsorship system. Instead, the Gulf state has said it would establish government-controlled workers’ councils and replace sponsorship with a system of contracts between employers and employees that does not give workers full freedom to seek alternative employment.

In a statement, the two unions said that migrant workers account for 94 per cent of Qatar’s workforce. The trade unions have over the past used the average 200 deaths a year of Nepalese workers as their prime example.

"An event like the World Cup should be an opportunity for a wealthy nation like Qatar to modernize its social framework - and we will be putting all pressure we can to ensure that workers' rights are improved as a result of the event," ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said in the statement.

In a call entitled ‘Qatar: Do the Right Thing’ on Equal Times, the news website of the ITUC, the union says: “Don’t let your World Cup team play in a shamed stadium. Help us fill the stadium now, and send a message to Qatar that there will be no World Cup in 2022 without workers' rights.”

The union asserts that “1.2 million workers in Qatar are prohibited from joining a trade union, in violation of international rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining….We want people to know about the problems facing workers in Qatar, where more people will die building the World Cup infrastructure than will play in the World Cup…Local laws in Qatar stop migrant workers from forming a trade union, collectively bargaining for better wages, and healthy and safe work.”

The trade union demands go to the heart of the largest threat to several of the wealthy Gulf states: the demographic time bomb. Qataris like Bahrainis, Kuwaitis and Emiratis constitute a minority of their country’s population and fear that any concessions that would give expatriates and migrant workers a stake in society could jeopardize their national identity, privileges and culture.

The fear explains among other things why soccer matches in those countries are played in relatively empty stadiums. Local soccer clubs target only nationals rather than foreigners as fans because this would give non-nationals a further interest in their host nation.

Clubs in the UAE recently offered to pay fans approximately $13 to attend matches in a bid to attract nationals to the stadiums and have promised them bonuses if they "have performed for admiration, sung, applauded and cheered  throughout the match,” according to M-Magazine. Coaches have been appointed to help fans who find cheering and singing difficult.

In responding to the trade unions, the Qatari government is walking a fine line between projecting the Gulf state as a cutting edge 21^stcentury nation and local concerns that the country’s Islamic norms could be jeopardized by complying with what are perceived to be Western standards. Reuters recently quoted Salma, a 25-year-old Qatari, as saying: "We welcome the expats, and we want them here. But we will not permit any disrespect to our religion or culture. This is your home, for now. But it is our home forever, and we will not bend to your ways."

Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, unlike the rulers of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, sees sports not only as a business and diplomatic leveraging opportunity but also as a pillar of Qatari national identity at the risk of sports sparking radical social change. The conservative Gulf state alongside Brunei and Saudi Arabia was pressured earlier this year to field for the first time women athletes at the London Olympics.

Fear of social change in the world’s only country alongside Saudi Arabia that adheres to the puritan interpretation of Islam of the 18^thcentury warrior priest Mohammed Abdul Wahhab albeit in a less strict application has already prompted protests by conservative elements.

Critics, including members of the royal family, have questioned the emir’s authority to authorize the sale of alcohol and pork to foreigners. The criticism has led to a banning of alcohol on a man-made island largely frequented by expatriates, a decision to make Arabic rather than English the language of instruction in education at Qatar University and a boycott last year of Qatar Airways.

A recent campaign with posters and flyers in malls and other public places, organized by a civic group, aims to ensure that expatriate women dress modestly in public in line with Islamic tradition. In response, the government has thrown a bone to conservatives by naming a huge newly constructed mosque after Mr. Wahhab.

For now, the criticism does not threaten the government, which has been spared the public protests that other states in the Middle East and North Africa have witnessed. It is likely to be able to contain opposition as long as it able to ensure that Qataris are among the world’s wealthiest people and is seen to be defending the Islamic nature of their state.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Singapore court orders journalist to reveal sources

By James M. Dorsey

A Singapore court has ordered veteran journalist and scholar JMD to reveal his sources for his reporting on an audit of suspended world soccer body FIFA vice president and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohammed Bin Hammam's management of AFC's finances and agreement with a Singapore-based company on the group's marketing rights.

The court accepted a demand by World Sports Group (WSG) to instruct the journalist and scholar to reveal his sources on the grounds that the audit was confidential and that the sources had defamed the company.

The court in a four-hour hearing however stayed its decision pending an appeal that Mr. Dorsey's lawyers, N. Sreenivasan and Sujatha Selvakumar of Straits Law Practice LLC, will submit in the coming days.

Mr. Dorsey's lawyers argued that he was not a party to any confidentiality agreement and that if WSG had an issue it should take it up with the AFC to whom the original report was addressed. The lawyers noted further that the code of ethics of journalists in Singapore as well as in numerous Asian countries, including Malaysia and Hong Kong shield journalists from revealing sources.

In an affidavit to the court, Mr. Dorsey asserted that he believed that WSG’s legal action was an attempt at “indirectly discovering who within the AFC may have breached their confidentiality and also suppress any well meaning or good intended person from coming forward in the future and is seeking to punitively punish those who may have spoken against them.”

WSG has said it applied to the High Court to force Mr. Dorsey to reveal his sources with the intention of launching possible defamation or breach of confidence proceedings. "We want information so we can determine what charges to make and against whom," WSG lawyer Deborah Barker told Agence France Presse.

The internal AFC audit conducted by PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) charged that Mr. Bin Hammam had used an AFC sundry account as his personal account, questioned the terms and negotiation procedure of a $1 billion marketing rights agreement between WSG and the AFC and raised questions of $14 million in payments by a WSG shareholder to Mr. Bin Hammam prior to the signing of the agreement.

In its report, PwC said that “it is highly unusual for funds (especially in the amounts detailed here) that appear to be for the benefit of Mr Hammam personally, to be deposited to an organization’s bank account. In view of the recent allegations that have surrounded Mr Hammam, it is our view that there is significant risk that…the AFC may have been used as a vehicle to launder funds and that the funds have been credited to the former President for an improper purpose (Money Laundering risk)” or that “the AFC may have been used as a vehicle to launder the receipt and payment of bribes.”

Malaysian police earlier this month arrested the husband of an associate of Mr. Bin Hammam on suspicion of helping steal documents related to one of the payments to Mr. Bin Hammam from AFC’s head office in Kuala Lumpur.

WSG has refused to comment on the PwC report and has threatened reporters, including the author of this 

report, with defamation proceedings. However in an August 28, 2012 letter to this reporter WSG Group Legal Advisor Stephanie McManus asserted that “PWC are incorrect and misconceived in suggesting that the MRA was undervalued. They have neither considered the terms of the contract correctly, the market, nor the circumstances in which it was negotiated,” Ms. McManus wrote.

The master rights agreement is controversial both because of the unexplained payments as well as assertions by sources close to the AFC that the soccer group, in line with common practice among international sport associations, should have concluded a service provider rather than a master rights agreement with WSG. The sources said such an agreement would have given the AFC greater control of its rights and how they are exploited and enabled it to better supervise the quality of services provided by WSG.

In a July 13 letter to lawyers Shearn Delamore & Co, PWC explicitly leaves open the possibility that the AFC might share the report with third parties. For that reason, the terms of the report contain a clause that shields PwC from any liability should the AFC choose to share the report with non-AFC institutions or persons.

The letter stipulates that the report is intended “solely for the internal use and benefit of Shearn Delamore & Co. and the Asian Football Confederation,” and that third parties are not authorised to have access to the report. The letter however goes on to say that should third parties gain access they agree that the report was compiled in accordance with instructions by the law firm and the AFC and that PwC is not liable for any consequences stemming from the fact that third parties had been granted access.

Lawyers for FIFA earlier this year sought unsuccessfully to introduce the report in Mr. Bin Hammam's appeal proceedings in the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration of Sport  against the world soccer body's banning for life of the Qatari national from involvement on soccer on charges of bribery.

Both FIFA and the AFC have suspended M. Bin Hammam on the basis of the report pending further investigation of the allegations in the PwC report and separate charges that he last year sought to bribe Caribbean soccer officials. Mr. Bin Hammam has denied all allegations and charges.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Football: Bin Hammam blogger ordered to reveal sources

 

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Above: Mohamed bin Hammam in a 2011 file photo

AFP
Friday, Sep 28, 2012

SINGAPORE - Singapore's High Court ordered a blogger to reveal his sources Friday after he reported that a leaked internal audit detailed large payments to suspended Asian soccer chief Mohamed bin Hammam.

Lawyers for James M. Dorsey, a Singapore-based academic and journalist, and 

the complainant, sports marketing company World Sport Group, both said the

move was approved after a closed-door session lasting nearly four hours.

"The application was allowed pending appeal," Dorsey's lawyer N. Sreenivasan

told AFP.

Dorsey had reported details on his blog, "The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer",

of a leaked PricewaterhouseCoopers internal audit of the Asian Football Confederation

(AFC), which he said listed payments to its president, bin Hammam.

The multi-million dollar payments were made before the Asian football body extended

its exclusive marketing and media rights contract with Singapore-based World Sport

Group, Dorsey said, in a deal reportedly worth $1 billion (S$1.22 billion).

WSG applied to the High Court to force Dorsey to reveal his source for the information,

and any related documents, with the intention of launching possible defamation or

breach of confidence proceedings.

"We want information so we can determine what charges to make and against whom,"

said Deborah Barker, senior counsel representing WSG.

Dorsey told AFP he was "disappointed" by the ruling, and confirmed that he planned to

appeal.

"I'm disappointed at the court's ruling and will appeal it," said the German national, who

is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore's

Nanyang Technological University.

The case has attracted press freedom concerns from Gianni Merlo, president of the

Swiss-based international sports media association (AIPS), and comes at a time of

renewed intrigue related to the bin Hammam situation.

This month, Kong Lee Toong, husband of former AFC finance director Amelia Gan,

pleaded not guilty in a Malaysian court to charges of stealing a financial document of

bin Hammam's from the body's Kuala Lumpur headquarters.

Qatar's Hammam, 63, has been suspended from football activities for more than a year,

after FIFA's ethics committee found him guilty of bribery during his election campaign to

replace the world body's president, Sepp Blatter.

The bribery case was seen as shedding a light on murky practices inside FIFA, and

prompted new questions about Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, in

which bin Hammam played a role. The bid, alongside others, is now under investigation.

However in July, bin Hammam's lifetime ban from football was overturned by the Court of 

Arbitration for Sport on grounds of insufficient evidence.

The Qatari multi-millionaire, 63, remains provisionally suspended by both FIFA and the

AFC pending investigations into the Asian body's financial dealings.

WSG, which bills itself as "Asia's leading sports marketing, media and event management

company", is majority-owned by French company Lagardere.

It also has global media rights for cricket's Indian Premier League and is the media and 

marketing partner of the OneAsia golf circuit.

What future for Leeds United? Manchester City or Portsmouth FC?

By James M. Dorsey

Supporters of Leeds United have welcomed a Middle East bid to acquire their troubled English soccer club with no clarity about who the real buyer is.

The Leeds United Supporters Trust described the announcement by the Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House in a letter to the island nation’s stock exchange that one of its subsidiaries, GFH Capital Limited, had agreed to “lead and arrange the acquisition of Leeds City Holdings,” the parent company of Leeds United, as “great news.”

Trust chairman Garry Cooper said Leeds fans were “hoping for investment in the team and for Leeds United to be glorious again.” He noted that a return of the club to the Premier League after it was relegated in 2007 to England’s second division as a result of its financial problems would reap its new owners profits from Leeds United’s share in the GBP 3.2 billion in broadcast revenues.

The risk is however that GFH because of a confidentiality clause declined to reveal on behalf of which Middle Eastern investor it was acting. Middle Eastern investment in European soccer has proven to be a mixed blessing with some clubs such as Manchester City rising from the doldrums to win the Premier League and Paris St. Germain beneftting and pushing ahead in performance and others like Servette FC, Malaga SC and Portsmouth FC struggling with the fallout of investors failing to live up to expectations.

As a result, the key question for Leeds supporters should be who is the investor and what is the purpose of the acquisition; those are questions that have yet to be answered.

For its part, Portsmouth, financially bankrupt and relegated from the premier to the third league after two acquisitions by different Arab owners with little real interest in the club, is currently facing the question whether it wishes to give Middle East investors a third chance.

GFH itself, an Islamic investment bank, has struggled financially in recent years. It agreed in May with creditors on a plan to restructure $110 million debt.

The difference between a Middle Eastern soccer investment that pays off and one that can deepen problems appears to be whether the investor is institutional or a member of a Gulf royal family with a strategic interest in the acquisition or a businessman operating on his own.

GFH is believed to have been engaged by private investors rather than one of the region’s sovereign wealth funds involved in the more successful European soccer acquisitions.

To be fair, the successful acquisition of Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal families who sits on the board of several of the emirate’s key economic entities, was initially fronted by United Arab Emirates billionaire businessman Sulaiman al-Fahim. Similarly, PSG was purchased by the Qatar Sport Investment, the Gulf state’s premier sport investment vehicle.

These soccer investments by Qatar and the UAE serve to increase the small Gulf states' international prestige, enable them to punch internationally above their weight, build sports as an economic sector that enhances tourism and makes them key nodes in the world’s sports infrastructure and provides leverage for further business opportunities. Qatar moreover has identified sports as a key pillar of a national identity it is trying to forge. The strategy is long-term and is reflected in the two states’ approach towards their sport investments.

However, Mr. Al Fahim’s subsequent acquisition of Portsmouth sent the struggling club off the deep end. The businessmen acquired Portsmouth in April 2009 after he had pushed aside by the Abu Dhabi royals. He defeated a rival bid by the club’s CEO Peter Storrie, who was backed by Saudi property tycoon Ali Al-Faraj. Barely five months later, Mr. Al-Fahim sold 90 per cent of his stake to Mr. Al-Faraj whose equally brief reign effectively put the company definitively on the road to humiliation and administration.

Like Portsmouth, Malaga is experiencing the travails of a businessman who has taken on more than he has wanted or is able to bite even if it is in better shape than the English club. Malaga went through a high acquiring numerous players after it was independently acquired in 2010 by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family. The acquisitions helped the club qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history.

The writing was nonetheless on the wall when soon after its qualification when players initially were not paid and the club was forced to start selling some of its most valuable assets. With a debt of 90 million euros, Malaga too could be relegated and may have to forfeit competing in the Champions League.

Geneva’s Swiss Super League club Servette FC and Austria’s Admira Wacker haven’t fared much better. Servette is on the brink of collapse after Iranian businessman Majid Pishyar who acquired it in 2008. It filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Mr. Pishyar, who managed the club on a shoe string, tried unsuccessfully to attract government funding by last year appointing Robert Hensler, a former top civil servant for the canton of Geneva, as vice-president. His earlier efforts to salvage Admira, his first European acquisition, failed too. Servette’s problems come on the heels of the bankruptcy in January of Neuchatel’s Super League team Xamax whose Chechen owner was arrested on charges of fraud and financial mismanagement.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Fan expression of a different kind

All sorts of fan speech going around today.

The Florida Marlins signed Adam Greenberg to a one-day contract and he will play next week against the Mets (R.A. Dickey on the mound, looking for his 20th win). Greenberg was beaned  in his first Major League at-bat with the Cubs in 2005 (against the Marlins, ironically) and has spent the last seven years trying to overcome post-concussion symptoms. His opportunity came about as a result of the efforts of the One At Bat Foundation, which has been lobbying (and encouraging and helping fans to lobby) MLB and teams to sign Greenberg and allow him to get an official at-bat.

Greenberg is Jewish (he most recently played for Israel in the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers), so there is something appropriate about this happening on the heels of Yom Kippur, where we hope to be inscribed not only for a life, but for a successful and meaningful life.

Ideas in action

Over the summer, Dan Markel (Florida State) and I wrote a short piece for The Atlantic arguing for the creation of "Fan Action Committees" ("FACs"), through which fans could collect and give money to free agent players to lure them to join fans' favorite team. We currently are working, along with Mike, on a longer version of the piece.

As everyone knows, this week's Monday Night Football game between Green Bay and Seattle ended on a touchdown on the final play of the game, in what most people outside Seattle believe was one of the worst calls, and worst-handled calls, in NFL history.^* Several Green Bay players took to Twitter to express their dispelasure, notably offensive linement T.J. Lang, who tweeted ""Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs." Shortly after that, a fan posted on the site Indiegogo (the page has been taken down, unfortunately) encouraging fans to send money to Lang to help him pay the fine that most believed was inevitable, as the NFL routinely fines players, coaches, and executives who criticize officiating. As it turned out, the league announced it would not impose fines for any comments related to Monday's game, no doubt a concession to the egregiousness of the mistake.

Still, this is our FAC idea in action--fans paying money as a show of fandom and of support for their favorite players. Although we primarily discussed the idea only in the context of free agency, this shows that fans may support players through money for a number of difference reasons in a number of different contexts. And it shows that fans instinctively understand this as a legitimate way to express support for their favorite players and teams.

    ^* Which, it turns out, will be the last call ever by the replacement referees, at least in this labor dispute.

Replay it Again Sam

After watching the end of last night’s Seattle-Green Bay affair at my favorite watering hole, Rick’s Café in Casablanca, I asked Carl, Rick’s right hand man, whether the game was honest. “Honest?” he repeated, “As honest as the day is long.”

To say the replacement refs have not been up to the level of their striking counterparts the first three games of the season is an understatement. But Monday night was a sight to behold on what still is, in the hearts of many, the NFL showcase game of the week.

In case you missed it, Seattle attempted the proverbial Hail Mary trailing 12 to 7 with 8 seconds remaining. Quarterback Russell Wilson heaved the ball some 60 yards where two of his players jockeyed for position amidst five Packers. The perfectly named Golden Tate pushed the defender in front of him away and leaped to catch the pigskin only to be out leapt by Packer safety M.D. Jennings who made the circus catch falling to the ground, while Tate still had one hand lamely clinging to the ball.

Two replacements stood over the pair looking befuddled, one signaling touchdown, the other making the correct call that the game was over with Green Bay the victor. No review. No discussion. No Mas. Final score: Seattle 14 Green Bay 12.

While my media hero Michael McCann makes a good point that these ne’er do well officials threaten the safety of the players, thus perhaps justifying legal action by the union to demand the league cough up the relative pennies to end the strike, much more is at stake here.

No less a rapscallion than Jimmy Connors said afterwards he no longer would bet on the NFL. Now that is a problem. Estimates vary, but it is safe to say the amount of gambling money flowing through the economy during an NFL season is in the billions of dollars. Recorded wagers in Las Vegas are about $650 million, with $90 million bet on the Super Bowl alone. And that’s legal bets, sure to be just a fraction of actual bets. If betting on an NFL game is like betting on a bout in the World Wrestling League, that free flow of money will soon be reduced to a trickle.

It’s time for the Commissioner to act for the good of gamblers everywhere.

Impact of Anti-US Protests: Healthy Change in the Muslim World

RSIS presents the following commentary Impact of Anti-US Protests: Healthy Change in the Muslim World by James M. Dorsey. It is also available online at this link. (To print it, click on this link.). Kindly forward any comments or feedback to the Editor RSIS Commentaries, at  RSISPublication@ntu.edu.sg

---

No. 179/2012 dated 25 September 2012

Impact of Anti-US Protests:
Healthy Change in the Muslim World

 By James M. Dorsey

      

Synopsis

Demonstrations against an American-made anti-Islam video clip have sparked fierce debates in the Muslim world. They also provoked demonstrations against militant Islamists and spurred initiatives by governments and religious authorities to turn anger into constructive engagement with the rest of the world.

Commentary

THIS MONTH’s violent protests in Muslim countries against the bigoted anti-Islam video on the Internet have taken place against the backdrop of popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa over the past two years. They have catalysed a change in the attitude and approach of Muslims, which had over the past two decades reacted to perceived insults to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad with a series of protests that produced death and destruction, which in retrospect are little more than blips on the radar of history.

To be sure, this month’s protests were as lethal as the past protests including those following Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa against British writer Salman Rushdie, the 2004 killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh for producing a film critical of Islam’s treatment of women, and the 2005 Danish anti-Muslim cartoons. Scores have been killed in the recent protests, most prominent of whom was US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

Historic change

However unlike past protests, this month’s outrage has produced historic change with protests against Islamist militants; debate about the role of religion in politics; how Muslims should respond to blasphemy; the limits of freedom of expression; and initiatives to engage in dialogue with the non-Muslim world. In effect the anti-Islam video clip, which got more than 30 million hits since the protests erupted, may have been the spark but the protests were really about the kind of society the Arab world is striving for and struggles for power among Islamists. Also as in the case of militant soccer fans in Egypt, they were a settling of scores with the police and security forces, the foremost remnants of the ousted regime of former president Hosni Mubarak.

In the most dramatic expression of change, angry Libyan protesters last weekend attacked Ansar al Sharia, the militant Islamist group believed to be responsible for Stevens’ death, forcing the group to abandon its base in the city of Benghazi and the government to announce a crackdown on the country’s myriad of armed groups.

Similarly, Egyptian activists have taken legal action against Ahmed Abdullah aka Abu Islam, who burnt a bible during last week’s protest in front of the US embassy in Cairo, and television host Khaled Abdullah who first aired the controversial video clip, The Innocence of Islam, on Salafist Al Nast tv. On Facebook, the “We are all Khaled Said” page that played an important role in mobilising last year’s protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak, listed reasons why Muslims should have ignored the video rather than ensure its popularity.

Turning anger into positive engagement

In Lebanon, a presenter on Future TV that is owned by Sunni Lebanese leader Saad Hariri, denounced the Shiite militia head Hassan Nasrallah as a hypocrite in a 15-minute political diatribe, for calling for protests against the video clip while remaining silent about the Assad regime’s destruction of mosques and killing of Muslims in Syria. Similarly, Sheikh Assir, a hardline cleric at an anti-video protest in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, denounced Hezbollah for displaying portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at a rally, describing him as a butcher.

The cleric charged that Hezbollah was exploiting the protests to polish its image tarnished by the group’s support of Assad. "Why didn't Sheikh Nasrallah do anything when the prophets of freedom were martyred in Syria?" he asked, adding that Assad committed blasphemy by forcing prisoners to say “There is no God but Bashar al Assad,” rather than the Muslim oath of faith, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet.”

The protests have also persuaded some governments and religious authorities to turn anger into positive engagement. Qatar has announced that it is investing US$450 million in a three-part epic that depicts the life of Prophet Muhammad. Ali Goma, the grand mufti of Egypt urged Muslims to "follow the Prophet's example of enduring insults without retaliating" and reportedly is looking at launching an international campaign under the motto, ‘Know Muhammad,’ to explain Islam to the non-Muslim world.

Important step forward
  
On the other hand, the protests have also strengthened the hand of Muslim conservatives who insist on strict laws against blasphemy and limiting freedom of expression to ensure that Islam is shielded against criticism and mockery. Salafis in Egypt could succeed in pressuring the Muslim Brotherhood to include a ban on blasphemy in the drafting of the country’s new constitution. A similar provision has already been included in the draft Tunisian constitution. Saudi grand mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh and the grand imam of Cairo’s Al Azhar University, Sheikh Ahmed el Tayyeb, called separately for the criminalisation of all insults of religious prophets and messengers.

Without doubt, a majority in nations across the Middle East and North Africa rejects expressions of blasphemy and supports laws against insults of Islam across the region. Nevertheless, the debate sparked by the recent anti-video protests is largely reflective of the tensions in societies transiting from autocracy to a more open form of government. For Islamists the struggle against blasphemy is in part a response to autocratic repression that, for example in Tunisia, targeted men with long beards who attended dawn prayers. Liberals across the region walk a tightrope between advocating freedom of speech that would allow criticism and mockery of religion and losing whatever public support they may have.

Change produced by the most recent protests is unlikely to amount to Western-style liberalism. It does however constitute a watershed in which people for the first time draw lines that they could not draw before and in which anger pent-up in societies with no release valves or manipulated by autocratic rulers, not only spills into the streets but is also being channeled into engagement. It may be just one step forward, but nonetheless, it is an important step.  


James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He is also the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

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Podcast: JMD in conversation with Jens Weinreich (in German)

http://www.jensweinreich.de/2012/09/23/2-sitzen-sie-bequem-mark-pieth-und-james-m-dorsey/

As NASCAR goes, so goes America?

Two years ago, I wrote about a poll showing the general politcal breakdown of sports fans. It found that sports fans overall leaned Republican, with NASCAR fans among the strongest Republican supporters (along with fans of golf and college football). Zogby just published a poll showing Obama with a lead among self-identified NASCAR fans (admittedly small sample size of only about 200 out of an overall sample of 800).

Destination: "Abnormally dangerous conditions"

After watching this weekend’s NFL games, it is obvious that the replacement referees are patently incapable of maintaining order during a game.  Blown calls—made or not—are maddening, inconsistency and human error are part of officiating sports. What is unacceptable is the loss of control on the field, leading to an unsafe environment for the participants.

The caliber of officiating is abysmal, these aren’t even elite Division I referees because those conferences are not letting them work NFL games.   With Division II referees attempting to manage games, the players are responding like the teacher has left the room and they have a poor substitute teacher trying to maintain order—it’s not happening.   Let's be clear, the referees are doing the best they can, but are overmatched by the speed, violence, and intensity of NFL football.

What can be done?

1. The NFL’s CBA has a “no strike clause” which, in theory, would restrict the ability of the players to strike in sympathy with the referees.

2. However, as Michael McCann recently analyzed on Sports Law Blog, clause 29 USC 143 of the NLRB permits a worker from refusing, in good faith, to work under “abnormally dangerous conditions”, and 29 USC 143 is applicable to NFL labor conditions.  Aren’t we there?   Football is a violent sport. Referees who are grossly inexperienced are posing a real and imminent safety risk to the players on the field.

3. The NFLPA could, and at this point I’m arguing should, take action.  Either:

a. The NFLPA could refuse to play under the current conditions, citing the very real fact that the workplace is fret with “abnormally dangerous conditions”…OR

b. Could ask the courts for an immediate injunction, terminating the current lockout by the NFL of the referees. In theory, the referees could go back to work while the parties continue to negotiate or mediate this mess.

4. We love sports and the tort doctrine "assumption of the risk" is well established because injuries are part of the game.  However, when a football player consents to risk, they do so under the assumption that the game will be managed by professionals, able to maintain safety standards that are paramount to the operation of these contents.  Based on what we have seen in the first three weeks of the 2012 NFL season, that safe work environment is missing.

5. An even bigger issue facing the NFL than the debacle surrounding replacement referees is the concussion litigation.  Here, the NFL is doing everything imaginable to argue that they care about player safety--with potential damages in the $ 1 BILLION range.  Doesn't it make sense to show some legitimate good will regarding player health and safety now?

Kurds monitor upcoming FIFA decision on Kosovo

By James M. Dorsey

The Kosovo Football Federation (KFF) and soccer-crazy Kosovars are not the only ones in anxious anticipation of this coming Friday’s executive committee meeting of world soccer body FIFA that is expected to decide the terms on which Kosovo will be allowed to play international friendlies. So will the Kurdistan Football Association and equally soccer-mad Kurds.

Kosovo and Catalonia, which already has been granted permission by FIFA to play international friendlies, are models for Kurdistan to whom soccer is also an important tool in achieving recognition as a nation and statehood.

For Kurdistan, it is an uphill battle. Kosovo and Catalonia have a leg up on Kosovo.  Unlike Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Iraq that enjoys no recognition from an international community afraid that its independence would further destabilize the Middle East, Kosovo has been recognized by the United States, 36 European nations including 22 European Union members, and 54 other countries.

Kosovo moreover is a member of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In addition, Kosovo achieved full sovereignty this month with the ending of international supervision imposed after it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. For its part, Catalonia’s bid was backed by the Spanish Football Federation.

Kurdistan has none of those assets. The KFF’s relations with the Iraqi soccer body are strained with Iraqis weary of Kurdish efforts to strike out on their own. Unable to breakthrough internationally, Kurdistan organized last June the 5th VIVA world cup for nations that FIFA refuses to recognize. Competing teams included Kurdistan, Northern Cyprus the Tamils, Western Sahara and Darfur.

In a September 14 letter to FIFA, the KFF welcomed FIFA’s decision in May to grant Kosovo the right to play international friendlies and requested that that right be applicable to “football as a whole, national clubs and teams, men’s and women’s, age categories and senior teams.”

The KFF noted that “Kosovo is not a place where football is embryonic and has to be sustained from a low level. The Football Federation of Kosovo became a member of the FA of Yugoslavia in 1946 with equal rights and the pyramid is complete with leagues and competitions from the top down to the bottom totally in line with FIFA and (European soccer body) UEFA requirements.”

That is in many ways true for Kurdistan too, which like Kosovo has Kurds playing in major European clubs. Nonetheless, the hardnosed, realpolitik objections to Kurdistan, for all practical matters a state-in-waiting, following in the shoes of Kosovo and Catalonia outweigh the moral arguments in its favor.

FIFA’s embrace of Kosovo will nevertheless make Kurdistan and others all the more determined to achieve equal soccer status. A statement by Iraqi Kurdish president Massoud Barzani equating sports to politics as a way of achieving recognition adorns Iraqi Kurdistan’s three major stadiums and virtually all of its sports centers and institutions. “We want to serve our nation and use sports to get everything for our nation. We all believe in what the president said,” says KFF president Safin Kanabi, scion of a legendary supporter of Kurdish soccer who led anti-regime protests in Kurdish stadiums during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

“Like any nation, we want to open the door through football. Take Brazil. People know Brazil first and foremost through football. We want to do the same. We want to have a strong team by the time we have a country. We do our job, politicians do theirs. Inshallah (if God wills), we will have a country and a flag” adds Kurdistan national coach Abdullah Mahmoud Muhieddin.

With other words, soccer may not achieve immediate political and diplomatic recognition but it certainly puts nations in the public eye. “Our external objective is primarily to project our identity through sports. Many people don't know our problem or would not be able to find us on a map. Soccer can change that. We had a French woman visit our refugee camps. When she told children that she was from France, they all replied saying Zidan” – a reference to retired star soccer player Zinedine Zidan, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, argues , said Sheikh Sidi Tigani, president of the Western Sahara Football Federation. “We’ve replaced the gun with a soccer ball,” adds West Saharan national sports director Mohammed Bougleida.

In using soccer as a tool to further nation and statehood, Kosovars, Kurds and West Saharan exploit a tradition established at the time that soccer was introduced in the Middle East and North Africa by the British when soccer was a tool to resist European colonialism and assert Arab interests internationally.

“Our success with VIVA demonstrates our ability to govern ourselves. Our goal for now is to be part of FIFA. All languages are represented in FIFA, only Kurdish isn’t while (FIFA president Sepp) Blatter claims that football is for everyone. We are human. We want the world to understand Kurdistan’s contribution,” says Mr. Kanabi.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

Wie ein Journalist Mohamed Bin Hammam bekämpft

21.09.2012

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Wie ein Journalist Mohamed Bin Hammam bekämpft

From 11 Freunde and Nahost Fussball

Angriff auf die Pressefreiheit

Der Fall Mohamed Bin Hammam beschäftigt weiter die internationale Fußballszene. Hat der ehemalige AFC-Präsident manipuliert und bestochen? Der Journalist James Dorsey sagt: ja. Jetzt versucht der Funktionär den Reporter zum Schweigen zu bringen. Ein Angriff auf die Pressefreiheit?

TEXT:

HELEN STAUDE

BILD:

IMAGO

Wenn in den vergangenen Monaten über Mohamed Bin Hammam und den asiatischen Fußballverband berichtet wurde, ging es meistens um das Thema Korruption und Geld. Hat der Qatari und ehemalige Präsident des Asiatischen Fußball Verbandes (AFC) Bin Hammam mit viel Geld Stimmen für die Wahl zum Präsidenten der FIFA gekauft? Hat er seine Position als AFC-Präsident missbraucht? Im englischsprachigen Raum gibt es wohl keinen zweiten Journalisten, der so akribisch und lange über die Machenschaften der Fußballfunktionäre berichtet hat wie James Dorsey. Jetzt wird er angeklagt, von der World Sports Group aus Singapur. Dabei hat er nur getan, was ein Journalist tut: er hat berichtet. Die World Sports Group (WSG), Marketingpartner des AFC, hat allerdings etwas dagegen. Sie will mit allen Mitteln versuchen, an die Namen von Dorseys Informanten zu kommen. Vor allem aber will sie den Journalisten zum Schweigen zu bringen.

Die malaysische Polizei hat den ersten Verdächtigen festgenommen

Zum Verständnis: Am 5. September berichtete Dorsey, der AFC habe der malaiischen Polizei gemeldet, wichtige Dokumente seien gestohlen worden. Die Dokumente stünden in Verbindung zu einer getätigten Überweisung  von International Sports Events (ISE) - einer Anteilseignerin der WSG - an den ehemaligen AFC-Präsidenten Mohamed Bin Hammam. Die fehlenden Dokumente beziehen sich genau genommen auf eine Zahlung von zwei Millionen US-Dollar vom Jahre 2008, von der in Saudi-Arabien sitzenden ISE. Dorsey berichtete weiter, es habe eine weitere Zahlung von zwölf Millionen US-Dollar gegeben, diesmal aber von der Al Baraka Investment and Development Company. Die malaiische Polizei ermittelt in dem Fall, Mohamed Bin Hammam soll in dem Diebstahl der Dokumente verwickelt sein. Die malaiische Polizei hat jetzt den ersten Verdächtigen festgenommen. Tony Kang, Ehemann der einstigen Finanzdirektorin des AFC. Nach Bin Hammams Suspendierung hat man Amelia Gan entlassen; Grund war der Verdacht auf Korruption und Bestechung. Tony Kang wird jetzt beschuldigt, mit dem Diebstahl der geklauten Dokumente in Verbindung zu stehen.

Dorsey, der selbst in Singapur lebt, belegt seine Behauptungen mit einem AFC-internen Bericht von PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Die Wirtschaftsprüfer von PWC befassen sich unter anderem mit der Führung eines AFC-Bankkontos. Sie lassen keine Zweifel offen, Bin Hammam habe das Konto genutzt, als sei dies sein persönliches Konto gewesen. Ein weiterer Teil befasst sich detailliert mit den Verträgen zwischen dem Asiatischen Fußballverbund und der WSG. Geprüft werden im wesentlichen drei Punkte: die Art und Weise, wie der Vertrag zwischen den Parteien verhandelt und aufgesetzt wurde sowie die Eigenschaft des Vertrages und Bezeichnungen. Zuletzt ging es um die zwei oben genannten Zahlungen. Die beiden Zahlungen gingen direkt auf das Konto, welches Bin Hammam nutzte als sei es sein persönliches Konto. Von diesem Konto wurde das gesamte Geld zu Bin Hammams tatsächlichem Privatkonto überwiesen. „Es ist nicht klar, warum diese Zahlungen getätigt wurden und auch nicht, wofür das Geld bestimmt war“, so der Journalist. Wie er an die internen Unterlagen gekommen ist, bleibt sein Geheimnis. Es scheint, Bin Hammam habe das Konto des Fußballverbandes zur Geldwäsche benutzt, ein Grund warum der AFC die Wirtschaftsexperten von PwC beauftragt hat. Die Zahlungen stehen mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit in Zusammenhang mit dem Vertrag der WSG. Der Report von PWC wirft aber in erster Linie Fragen auf und gibt keine Schlussfolgerungen, Fragen die die WSG zum Beispiel nicht beantworten will – im Gegenteil.

»Verzerrte und haltlosen Äußerungen«

Die Rechtsanwältin der WSG, Stephanie McManus, reagierte scharf auf Dorsey. Bereits vor der Veröffentlichung seines Artikels erklärte sie ihm in einem Brief, seine Informanten müssten ein sehr detailliertes Wissen über die von ihm aufgeführten Behauptungen haben. Sie forderte ihn auf, alle Artikel über die WSG, die auf seinem Blog erschienen sind, umgehend zu löschen. Er solle außerdem alle Quellen und Informanten offen legen. Nur wenige Tage später erhielt Dorsey einen Brief von WSGs Anwälten mit der Aufforderung, sich zu entschuldigen. In dem Schreiben heißt es, »ihre verzerrten und haltlosen Äußerungen zeigen wie wenig repräsentativ ihre Informanten sind und zeugen von ihrer Böswilligkeit.«

Dorsey zeigt sich von solchen Aussagen wenig beeindruckt. »WSG stellt sich nicht den Anschuldigungen. Sie versuchen einfach nur, die Debatte zum schweigen zu bringen. Sie wollen mich einschüchtern.« Er werde seine Quellen nicht offen legen und schon gar nicht aufhören zu berichten. Und genau das versucht die World Sport Group. Die Firma hat beim Gericht beantragt, Dorsey nach den Quellen und Informanten fragen zu dürfen. Nun könnte WSG versuchen, dem Gericht weis zu machen, seine Angaben seien schlichtweg falsch. Oder aber, WSG habe von seinen Berichten Schaden getragen. In diesen Fällen könnte es dazu kommen, dass Dorsey alles auf den Tisch legen muss.

ESPNSTAR.com Autor Jesse Fink beschreibt den Fall nüchtern: »Dorseys Fall ist Zeitverschwendung«. Er kritisierte das Vorgehen WSGs, geht gegen die Anschuldigungen gegen an. »Ich kenne Dorsey seit einiger Zeit. Ich bürge für seine Professionalität, seine Intelligenz und seine Arbeit. Seine Artikel zitiere ich regelmäßig und zwar nur aus dem Grund, weil sie einfach gut sind.« Auch Gianni Merlo, Präsident der International Sports Press Association (AIPS) nahm Stellung: »Jeder Journalist hat die Pflicht, über die Wahrheit zu berichten. Die Redefreiheit muss jedem Journalisten in jedem Land gewährleistet werden, die Gerichte haben dafür zu sorgen.« Für Merlo ist es undiskutabel, dass mächtige reiche Firmen, versuchen würden, ihre Geschäfte vor rechtlichen Konsequenzen zu verstecken.

Sollte die WSG Recht bekommen, stünde es schlecht um die Pressefreiheit

WSG benutzt Dorsey als abschreckendes Beispiel, was passiert, wenn Journalisten gegen sie berichtet – und wenn Informanten auspacken. Sie beugen vor, damit in Zukunft keiner mehr wagt, gegen sie das Wort zu erheben. Sollte WSG am Ende Recht bekommen, steht die Pressefreiheit vor einer dunklen Stunde. Zweifellos hat keine Firma das Recht einen Journalisten in so eine Situation zu drängen, die Pressefreiheit und Redefreiheit dermaßen zu untergraben. Der Prozess gegen Dorsey kann sich hinziehen. In der Zwischenzeit berichtet er weiter, über Bin Hammam, über die WSG. Einschüchtern kann man ihn nicht.