Syria’s Hafez al-Assad was a long-time opponent of Saddam Hussein and the rivalry influenced not only his political decisions but also his approach to football. Al-Assad cultivated the image of a reasonable pragmatic leader, helped in no small measures by Saddam’s excesses, which made him look like a suburban librarian by comparison. This restraint manifested in his policy on football, which was restricted to subtle gestures such as naming every single football stadium in Syria “The Hafez al-Assad Stadium,” like every school, university, hospital, airport, and dam. While this made life hard for Syria’s taxi drivers, it filled the Assad family with pride and humility. In the 1980s, though, al-Assad began to feel threatened by the success of the Iraqi football team and decided to pressure the Syrian team to qualify for the World Cup. His philosophy of steadfastness and confrontation, though, urging coaches and players to “assume heroic postures” and wait for the opponents to crumble under the weight of their internal contradictions, proved to be less successful in football than it was in politics. Al-Assad then lost interest in football and dedicated his spare time to his new hobby, acquiring Lebanon.
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:49:06 +0000
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