Log in

View Full Version : the bizare world of libyan footbal under gadaffi



Sasha
4th April 2011, 23:39
between all the horific news about libya sometimes you find an article that is just plainly bizar. in a dutch newspaper today there was an lenghty article about football in libya.

its in dutch but here are some bizarre experts:

as probably people know current champion Al-Ittihad (the mayor tripoli team) is the personal toy of its most famous former player al-saadi gadaffi, one of the sons of gadaffi, who dominates the competition by both bribing and threathing the opposing players and by just simply buying any decent player in the country.
what i didnt know was;
- footbal players are only allowed to be named on state media by their number not their name.
- during matches only the Al-Ittihad fans are allowed to be filmed by the camera's
- in 1999 the seccond team of benghazi, Alahly, won an suprise victory in an crucial match against Al-Ittihad. Al-Saadi Gadaffi simply had the footbal union declare the Alahly victory declared illegal and the match victory given to his team. When the Benghazi fans reacted with some protests they where not only met by brutal police oppression but the regime on a morning suddenly showed up and simply levelled their entire stadium :scared:

i'm not going to translate the whole article but its an bizarre look inside libya, especialy as its through the eyes of footbal, an game they take very serious there (like in the whole of the magreb)

praxis1966
13th April 2011, 21:26
I don't think anything quite this extreme happened, but it reminds me of the treatment Real received over Barca in the Franco years... Pretty ridiculous that whenever announcers or pundits get to talking about Real they always mention the 'greatness' of their squads during the 50s, 60s, and 70s yet never seem to mention the interventions of a fascist dictatorship.

Anyway, this article has me wondering the same thing Real/Franco does. What's the point of competing if you know you're going to win/lose because the odds are unfairly stacked? Seems pretty fucking pointless, not to mention inhumane in the case of the Libyan situation.

Sasha
15th April 2011, 01:57
Yeah, that's what a lot of people from benghazi in the article mentioned. They used to care about the football, now the game couldn't really interest them anymore, flying the red & white club colors is now a way to covertly show your opposition to gafaffi.
He made it political, not they.