Soccer - Not Popular?
Let us all take a moment to laaaaaugh.
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FIFA aims to spend $100 million (54.8 million pounds) on 250 soccer development projects in the next four years to stop poorer footballing countries falling further behind a rich elite, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said on Sunday.
FIFA’s “Goal” programme, launched by Blatter in 1999, has already helped 181 national soccer associations to push through projects for technical centres, schools, pitches and administration buildings.
“The projects have breathed life into these associations and improved football,” Blatter said in Rabat, where he was inaugurating a Moroccan youth training centre for which FIFA has contributed $850,000.
Hosni Benslimane, president of the Moroccan Football Federation, said the project would help to revive Moroccan soccer, which is suffering from a lack of funds and an uninterested public.
Fewer than 1,000 people turn out to watch the average Moroccan first division match and all but the top three teams are made up largely of amateurs.
The North African kingdom has failed five times to win the right to host the World Cup and was denied a place in Germany 2006 by arch-rivals Tunisia.
To reverse its fortunes before the South Africa World Cup in 2010, Morocco has launched a drive to train players, referees and coaches, modernise club buildings and lay out new pitches.
“This project to bring football up to scratch should result in a real professionalism in Morocco,” Benslimane said.
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I’m not even going to address the concept of professionalism in Morocco. Obviously, their idea of it is not the same as Western ideals, and that’s all I have to say.
However, some of the other statements in this article are ludicrous. “An uninterested public?” Who is that man kidding? When Morocco plays in the Africa Cup, or when they’re in qualifying matches for the World Cup, all of Morocco is glued to their televisions. I don’t know which “first division” matches he’s talking about, but local teams such as Raja, FAR, Waq-Waq (all colloquial nicknames) are wildly popular. If people aren’t going, there must be other reasons - the price of tickets, perhaps. Even when the pros play, most Moroccans don’t have the time or money to travel to Casa or Rabat to see them.
As for being denied the right to host the World Cup - thank God. Morocco’s infrastructure isn’t ready. For example, when there’s a major holiday combined with a school vacation, the trains are so crammed that people are standing outside crying because they can’t get on - standing room only, there isn’t a single millimeter of space left. If the Moroccans can’t figure out to add a couple of extra train cars when they expect high traffic, you think they’ll be able to handle the hordes for the Cup?
And despite the fact that their players are mostly amateurs, they’re excellent. During World Cup qualifying, Morocco dominated Group 5 right up until the end. They only failed to qualify because of earlier draws with Kenya and Malawi, and they tied Tunisia, too.
I think I wrote about this earlier (when I talked about talking Hamou to an American soccer game), but modern club buildings and new pitches do not result in good players. Many of the greatest players in the world, like Ronaldo, came from very poor backgrounds. Ronaldo played on a pitch the size of a basketball court with a size 2 ball. No matter how much money they pile on, Morocco’s bitterness over losing out on the World Cup hosting and not qualifying for Germany will never be assuaged until they stop blaming everyone and everything else for their problems.
May 1st, 2006 at 2:25 pm
You said it sister! Can you imagine Morocco hosting the World Cup? I for one would hide in my apartment until it’s over - never venturing to step foot outside of the apartment.