Soccer Dad

Uday and the maiden

The New York Times just ran a report Iraq’s Escape Is Soccer, but Soccer Can’t Escape War. The article focuses on the problems of keeping professional soccer - a popular sport in Iraq - going.

The professional league halted at the 2003 invasion; play was not resumed until late 2004. Though the stadiums remain remarkably free of violence, fear of attacks has cut into attendance. Ticket revenues and government support have declined, and the stadiums and practice facilities are in poor shape. The best players have fled abroad, seeking safer conditions and more lucrative contracts. “All the players would be happy to leave the country,” said Amir Sabah Hussein, 18, a forward on the Police Club. “I wish it weren’t so.”

Violence has also precluded professional league matches in areas of the country where the insurgency is particularly strong, including Anbar Province and the area north of Baghdad known as the Sunni Triangle. Teams from several violent, troubled cities have either folded or moved: the Samarra team, for instance, has relocated to Baghdad, and Mosul plays in Erbil, according to Tareq Ahmed, the acting director of the Iraq Football Association.

One problem with the article is that it starts in 2003. What was soccer like in Iraq prior to 2003? Nowadays, coming in second place is lauded.

When the final whistle blew on the championship game against Qatar on Dec. 15 — a 1-0 defeat for Iraq — the Iraqi television channel that carried the game cut to a montage of glorious highlights from past victories, seemingly intent on forestalling a total collapse of the national spirit. “You are heroes,” the commentator declared. “Second is a beautiful position.”

However the sports czar in pre-invasion Iraq was Uday Hussein. Uday did not like to lose.

With a wave of Uday's arm the manacled boxer was led into the room by Iraqi secret service. Sitting behind a dark wood desk beneath an oversized portrait of himself, Uday began his tirade. "In sport you can win or you can lose. I told you not to come home if you didn't win." His voice rising, he walked around the desk and gave the boxer a lesson. "This is how you box," he screamed as he threw a left and a right straight to the fighter's face. Blood dribbled from the athlete's nose as Uday launched another round of punches. Then, using the electric prod he was famous for carrying, Uday jolted the boxer in the chest.

Another way he'd show a losing athlete the folly of his ways was using an iron maiden.

A bad day on the field for a player on the national soccer squad could result in savage retribution: Players had their feet scalded and toenails ripped off for failing to win tournaments. Allegations of torture had even resulted in investigations by international sports governing bodies, most notably soccer's FIFA, but these had failed to produce conclusive evidence — hardly surprising, since no player would dare admit to suffering such abuse, for fear of even worse.

On Saturday, however, TIME found what may be the first tangible evidence pointing to torture in Uday's own backyard, the administrative compound of the Iraqi national Olympic committee in central Baghdad. Hidden in a pile of dead leaves, not 20 yards from the building housing the Iraqi Football Association, was that must-have appliance of every medieval dungeon: an iron maiden.

(And here are the personal recollections of one Iraq's soccer players from the time of Uday.)

I'm not saying that life in Iraq is great now. Obviously it isn't. But the article in the Times pretends that the disruptions to normal life began when the United States invaded. But under Saddam, Uday and Qusay there was nothing normal about life in Iraq prior to 2003.

Blogdigger tags: Uday Hussein, Iraq, Soccer.

Posted by SoccerDad at January 9, 2007 2:13 AM | TrackBack