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Saudi lesson for Latin football craze!

Published : Friday, 25 November, 2022 at 12:00 AM  Count : 274

Saudi lesson for Latin football craze!

Saudi lesson for Latin football craze!

As droves of Argentine fans headed home in stunned silence, I stopped one and asked why he supported Argentina blindly especially when the opponent team was representing Asia. What I got was a blank look. Actually, most Argentine fans I asked gave me the same expression. They love a team, which is from another continent but do they actually know why?

Even before the World Cup began, news stories were being posted on social media about devoted fans colouring their homes, boats and rickshaws in Argentine or Brazil colours.

Some may say, they like the style of play, which is a very vague answer because what is their style of play? There's nothing left of the skill based game from the seventies because beauty is one thing, result is something else. In 1982, the most beautiful game was played by Brazil featuring stars like Socrates, Zico, Alemao and others but they were beaten by a clinical Italy boosted by Paolo Rossi who later went on to lift the trophy.

Almost all teams now have a similar style of play - fast passing, one touch, strategic game approach where the main objective is to win. How the win is ensured is insignificant; players from all teams will feign injury if tackled within the D box to get a penalty, a red card given to the other side triggers celebrated, subterfuge is a key tool of the game with tactical fouls taught by coaches.

Anyway, the point is, most fans divided into Brazil and Argentina cannot specifically point out the reasons behind their support.

This fervent devotion is out of passion, emotion and blind faith.

Is Argentina bigger than Asia?

The match between Saudi Arabia and Argentina will go down in football history as an upset although I refuse to call it that. In modern football, especially at the top tier, results can go any way. Naturally, no one expected Argentina, ranked third in the world, to lose to a team ranked 51st but then, this is the World Cup.

What one finds perplexing is that people will support a country about which they know very little but not someone representing Asia.

When an Asian team plays, whoever the opponent, the support needs to be for the Asian side and not the other team.

Bangladesh has very strong connections with Asian nations playing in the current World Cup- millions of Bangladeshis work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Japan. The Bangladeshi diaspora in South Korea is also large and with Iran, the link is on the academic and sporting side. After the 1979 Iranian revolution, thousands of Iranian students came to Bangladesh for education and soon, top class footballers followed. In 1987, the local league champions Mohammedan had Iranian players, Naljegar, Taheri with the team was coached by none other than the goalkeeper of Iran's World Cup team in 1978, Nasser Hejazi.

There are allegations of human rights abuses against Gulf nations although since the mid seventies, millions of Bangladeshis have worked in oil rich nations, sending much needed foreign currency back home.

In the years ahead, the link with Saudi Arabia will grow, Qatar being the biggest producer of LNG gas will certainly be a major trading partner. However, knowing all this there is uncontrollable, almost hysterical madness for football teams of nations with which we have little or no commercial or any other interaction.

Of course, in supporting team from Latin America the rationale can be: it's football and in this game, passion overtakes reason. Agreed, but then again, a loss needs to be accepted gracefully.

When Saudi Arabia won, the city of Dhaka looked glum and dejected. Surprisingly, there were lamentations for the loss but hardly enough kudos for the Saudis. A few grudgingly acknowledged the quality of the second Saudi goal, which will possibly be one of the ten best goals of the cup.

Argentina or Brazil, neither can be bigger than an Asian side because they do not represent our continent and I am certain, the frenzied support in this country may leave people from both South American nationsa little baffled.

A sociologist once told me: 'the root cause of such intense emotion possibly stems from the general love of the game plus the realisation that Bangladesh will not be able to play the World Cup in the next twenty years.'

Actually, if you ask me, I feel Bangladesh will never be able to play the cup because as things standat the moment, winning the regional championship in South Asia is a daunting task for the men's team.

But since the World Cup football is about the game plus the market, it may come to India with the Indian side making tremendous improvement both in standard of play and ranking.

India will possibly play the World Cup as a host and not through qualifying because the whole nation will provide a massive market for FIFA.

In the end, let's just say that which team you support is totally your prerogative but let's do it with a little reasoning.

Of course, in the end, it's usually the top teams who play the last eight but till then, let's also cheer for Asian sides too.

Saudi Arabia employed the offside trap strategy, which caught Argentine forwards off guard; full marks for the middle-eastern side for an intelligent game plan.

My hunch, the Saudi sensation will spawn some sparkling performances from Japan, South Kore and even provide the extra boost for Qatar.

Admit it, a World Cup which is predictable is hardly exciting - so, even if we get some despondent faces, let's have twists.

By the way, defeat for either Brazil or Argentina is not the end of life!

A bit of advice for elders and seniors who indoctrinate the minds of the young: teach the young to love the game, appreciate the winner and accept the most important factor called 'luck'.

In life, we all give our best, but in the end, it all comes to a little luck and the slight nudge from the heaven up there���
Pradosh Mitra is a football fiend and supports all Asian sides!
















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