No Keeping The Politics Out of Sports-World Cup

[Annie]

Lots of links!

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008721.php

June 21, 2006
Soccer semiotics
by Yehudit at June 21, 2006 08:01 AM

The 2006 World Cup was rife with political symbolism which may have upstaged the games themselves.
Germans turned out to protest Iranian president Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial:

Demonstrators waved Israeli flags at the rally outside the Alt Oper opera house in Germany's financial capital. Some held up signs reading "Support Israel Now!" and "Israel has the right to exist." . . . . an estimated 1,200 people, many of them German Jews, demonstrated against Ahmadinejad before Iran's loss to Mexico in its opening World Cup game in Nuremberg last Sunday. Portugal beat Iran 2-0 on Saturday.​

Also ganging up on Ahmadinejad were expat Iranians. Tigerhawk has a gallery of Persian soccer hotties, and Matthew adds (via email):

They don't dress like that in Tehran. Also, being in Londonistan, I can tell you there are plenty of cars flying green, white and red, with "IRAN" written through the white stripe instead of the symbol on the post-revolution flag (mostly Beemers as it happens . . .).​

Germany caught the patriotic fever:

When it came to the national anthem and its opening line "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles", so often accompanied by uncertainty and shoe-gazing, much of the 65,000-strong crowd rose to their feet and joined in, as did the national team. . . . . Patriotism has for decades been associated with nationalism, and the sinister past of blind obedience to a dictatorial leader. If you are a proud German you generally do not express that by flying the national flag or singing the national anthem, both of which have been more associated with Germany's far-right parties. . . . As successive generations distance themselves from the Nazi past - without forgetting it - there is a feeling that the World Cup is a timely celebration of Germany's modern democracy. It seemed to start a week before kick-off when fans from all nations began to arrive, proudly bearing their national colours from cars, camper vans and on thousands of replica shirts. At that point many of the 80 million Germans, with a proud footballing heritage, seemed to have asked themselves, why are we not doing the same?​

Did you ever think you'd see the same people waving Israeli flags and singing "Deutschland über alles"?

But the most conspicuous symbol of a politicized sports event was Ghanian player John Pantsil whipping out an Israeli flag every time his team scored a goal against the Czech Republic. (Pantsil also plays for the Israeli team, which would probably qualify for the tournament if it could compete with teams in the Asian region rather than the European one. Muslim countries won't play Israel, so . . . . Pantsil wanted to cheer up his Israeli fans.)
Egypt was flummoxed and began generating Zionist conspiracy theories:

"As soon as the referee blew his whistle to start the match, Egyptians were out enthusiastically, almost hysterically supporting Ghana, until defender John Paintsil took out the Israeli flag," read the paper's front page article. . . . "The main question on Egyptian lips after the match was "why?".
​

Some papers described Paintsil as a "Mossad agent", others said "an Israeli had paid him to do it" but the most elaborate theory was offered by the top-selling state-owned daily Al-Ahram. "The real reason," sports analyst Hassan el-Mestekawi wrote, stems from the fact that many Ghanaian players go through football training camps set up by an Israeli coach who "discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent's children" with the ultimate goal of selling them off to European clubs. "The training program for these children starts every morning with a salute to the Israeli flag," Mestekawi claimed.

​

. . . "We were totally supporting Ghana and we were so excited by how well they were doing," Ashraf al-Berri, who watched the match with a dozen friends told AFP. "We were screaming with joy, but the whole room went quiet when Paintsil took out the flag. We didn't really know how to react," he said.

"As an Egyptian I am very sensitive when it comes to Israel," Osama Mohy, who watched the match at a friend's house, told AFP. "If Mido scores, would he wave the England flag? and if he did everyone would hate him for it," he said refering to Egyptian striker Mido (Ahmed Hossam) who plays for England's Tottenham Hotspurs.[/INDENT]

African champions Egypt failed to qualify for the World Cup finals.

Sandmonkey:

Some are even calling for the saudi or Tunisian teams to start waving the palestinian flags after every football game that they win "in retalliation". We are all in Kindergarden apparently!​

Ghana Football Assoc. apologized, FIFA doesn't care.

Well, the Olympics were always at least as much an opportunity to play subtle geopolitical games as to overt athletic ones, so why not the World Cup?