Monday | 7 October 2024 | Reg No- 06
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Monday | 7 October 2024 | Epaper

 In My View

Soccer: A true sport of mankind

Published : Friday, 16 December, 2022 at 12:00 AM  Count : 333
Syed Badiuzzaman
Soccer is truly a sport of the mankind -- a game of the entire humanity. No other sport in the world came close to it in terms of popularity in the past, nor will they ever do so in the future.  This is the ultimate truth. And it was once again proved beyond any doubt by the FIFA World Cup 2022 currently underway in Qatar.

While the participants in the tournament play the game at the newly built state-of-the-art stadiums in the small country on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East with a multicoloured beautiful ball manufactured by Adidas, world's more than half the entire population of all ages and genders also play it without ball at home and bars and restaurants and other public places in front of the television screens.

As the players shoot the ball in the direction of the goal post of their rival teams on field at the stadiums in Qatar, we jump in excitement in our living rooms and many other different places thousands of miles away from the tournament venue. And as they make fouls against the members of our favorite teams or push them roughly onto the ground, we scream at them from every corner of the globe even though those players never hear our screaming.
Genuine soccer lovers wherever they live in the world never missed any of the 64 matches of the tournament. Even the kings and the queens and the presidents and prime ministers of many countries of the world and the wealthy Arab rulers of the Middle East watched all matches of their favorite soccer teams. As the match time began, they put off their all other programs -- official or private -- and sat before the television screens to watch the action.

And so did the kids in the slums of Brazil's Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, India and the overcrowded city of Dhaka, Bangladesh and many other countries of the world. The difference is while the rich and the famous watch their favorite game on big screens in luxurious palaces and mansions, the kids of the slums on small screens in crammed rooms. But both groups watch the same game indeed with same joy and excitement. And football is equally close to the heart of all watchers.

Billions of people tune into the greatest sporting action of mankind in the middle of the day while billions more do the same in the middle of the night due to the time gap around the globe. But both groups watch the same match live on TV. A friend from Dhaka informed me in a real-time conversation on Facebook just the other day that it was 12:00 a.m. there now and she was already feeling sleepy but the game of her most favorite team would begin an hour later and she couldn't miss it.

Die-hard soccer fans haven't missed any match of the tournament in Qatar. And they have come from all continents of the world. FIFA World Cup which takes place in every four years is like a pilgrimage for these dedicated fans. Nothing could stop them from coming to Qatar. Many have taken time off from their job -- paid or even unpaid --and many are reported to have shut down their businesses temporarily for a month to come to the Arab country and witness the greatest sporting extravaganza of the world.

According to a FIFA report, more than 2.45 million people -- almost the entire population of Qatar -- attended the first 48 matches of the 2022 World Cup in Doha.  During the World Cup in Russia in 2018, a lower number of people attended them. Since the 1994 final between Brazil and Italy in California, the highest ever attendance in the World Cup's history was seen at the Argentina-Mexico match in Qatar on Nov. 26. An estimated 88,966 fans packed the Lusail Stadium to watch the action.

This World Cup has been full of shocks and surprises right from the start. And it began when Saudi Arabia, an unlikely team to beat a World Cup giant, pulled off a surprise 2-1 victory over Argentina in their Group C opening match. Then came another stunning victory of Japan against once mighty Germany. No one could think that Japan too would defeat four times World Cup champion Germany. Only Brazil took home the most coveted prize in football five times -- the highest number.

But the greatest magic in this World Cup in Qatar has been shown by the Atlas Lions of Morocco. They began their assault right from the group stage beating Belgium, the No. 2 team in the world with two goals. That shock defeat of the European heavyweight -- who couldn't score any goal against Moroccan team -- immediately triggered riots by angry mob in Brussels and several other Belgian cities. Frustrated soccer fans in Belgium smashed cars and stores in the capital and elsewhere in the country prompting riot police to bring the situation under control.

And then the Atlas Lions defeated the 2010 World Cup champion Spain in a 3-0 penalty shootout and reached the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time. However, the biggest history of this World Cup was made by Morocco when they beat Portugal in the quarterfinals and moved to the semifinals becoming the first African and an Arab nation to reach this advanced stage of the tournament. Portugal's defeat came as such a huge shock for Cristiano Ronaldo that he even refused to shake hands with Moroccan players after the game.

But the whole world celebrated Africa's moments. As the final whistle was blown by the referee declaring the end of the historic match, even a conservative Arab mother danced with his son, who played for the Moroccan team, on the field at the stadium in full view of everybody. That was a rare moment in the history of the World Cup. That was also a great moment for international soccer -- a moment that showed that football has immense possibilities, a moment that also showed that the underdogs will not remain underdogs forever; they too will have their turn to take the places of heavyweights.

Even though the Atlas Lions of Africa lost to reigning World Cup champion France in a fiercely contested semi-final, they lost with dignity putting up a tough fight throughout the match against the title holder. Barely two minutes before the final whistle from the referee when the Moroccan players got an opportunity for the last time to score a goal against their French counterparts, a commentator from the stadium said: "They still carry the fight. They don't feel they are beaten." It wasn't easy for France to defeat the resilient Atlas Tigers of Africa. And the world witnessed it.

Coming out of nowhere, Morocco surprised two World Cup giants - first Belgium and then Spain - and qualified for the quarterfinals for the first time in its history and then they upset Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal and moved to the semifinals to face off with the reigning champion of the World Cup. No African country earned the honor of reaching the semifinals ever before in the 92 years history of the FIFA World Cup. This is a massive achievement of the Atlas Lions of Africa and it is enough to inspire the young footballers of the continent as well as the Arab countries across the Middle East.

Although the Atlas Lions of Africa couldn't make it to the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, they received extensive media coverage that is usually given to the champion of a tournament. From the Washington Post and the New York Times to the community newspapers around the world -- all media outlets prominently featured Morocco's phenomenal progress from the underdogs to heavyweights in global soccer.
The writer is a Toronto-based journalist who also writes for the Toronto Sun as a guest columnist







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