Arab dismay at mass WCup exit
Print Edition
No one expected Egypt, Morocco or Saudi Arabia to win the World Cup but for all three to crash out on the same day was a disaster for Arab football.
Between them they have so far mustered no points, the tournament’s biggest thrashing and just one goal — and that was a penalty.
The only Arab team now with any hope is Tunisia, and it faces the task of trying to beat a Belgium side which some tip to win the World Cup, after losing 1-2 to England in its first game.
Reaction was swift across the football-mad region after the losses on Wednesday.
Many fans took to social media to joke that they now knew what FIFA stood for — “Football Is not For Arabs.”
Others claimed that “Arab teams were years behind Europe and Latin America.”
Another drily noted: “Arab countries always differ on everything but agree to leave the World Cup together.”
Saudi Arabia was the most disappointed. It was thumped 0-5 by Russia and then lost 0-1 to an unconvincing Uruguay.
Saudi’s Argentinian coach Juan Antonio Pizzi was asked by journalists why the team had failed to make Saudi Arabian fans “proud” of their team.
Turki al-Sheikh, the Saudi Arabian sports authority chief, lashed out at the players after the Russia debacle in a Twitter video, claiming the performance was a personal insult. “We’ve done everything we could for the national team players,” he thundered, before adding: “They’ve blackened my face.”
Egypt’s tournament has been a fairytale turned horror story with the injury saga of its key player Mohamed Salah, whereas Morocco played well against Iran and Portugal but was toothless in attack.
Teams from the region were hardly alone in experiencing disappointment, but their failure in Russia is especially relevant because the 2022 World Cup will be held in the Middle East for the first time and the performance of Arab sides will be closely scrutinized.
The host nation, Qatar, has never qualified for the finals, a fact often pointed out by its many critics — it will get a free ticket in 2022 as the organizer.
Russia defied pre-tournament expectations that it would flop on home soil, but some have predicted that Qatar will make history in 2022 by becoming the first host team to lose its opening game.
Since controversially winning the right to host the tournament, Qatar has said its World Cup would be one for the whole region, a legacy now under risk.
The tournament could have a different flavor to any before with the vast majority of the 1.5 million fans expected to attend coming from the Middle East region, particularly the Gulf.
But an increasingly poisonous political dispute between Qatar and its rivals, including Saudi and Egypt, threatens that.
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