Damn international sports!!!

The BBQ Pit
1

This week, international sports has reached a new low.

Incident 1:
you can read the full article here: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/0206ussoccer.html

In Mexico, this week, the US Olympic soccer team recieved less than a warm welcome. During the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner,” the crowd “hooted.” When the US team scored a goal, the crowd booed. When the US team won, the crowd shouted “Osama! Osama! Osama!” And you know what makes it even weirder? They weren’t even playing the Mexican team, but the Canadians.

Incident 2:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3403271.stm

In the Middle East, there was a World Cup fencing tournament. In the crowd was your regular mix of Jordanians (where it was held), Lebanese, Iranians, etc. But there was one unusual competitor: Israel. Now, you would think this was a step in the “right” direction over there, but the reality, as shown in the above article, is otherwise. The Israeli team was first asked not to come to the tournament. A two-man team arrived in Amman, Jordan even after asked to not do so. After that, the Jordanian officials refused to fly the Israeli flag. A fencer from the Israeli team had to go up to the flagpole and hoist the flag himself. THEN, the Palestinian team withdrew from the tournament in protest, and according to the article, it’s very possible that the Lebanese and Iranian teams will withdraw too.

What…the…fuck!!! The purpose of international athletic competitions was to allow people from different nations to compete without having the politics of their nations interfere with each other. This goes back even to Ancient Greece, where, if I remember my ancient history class correctly, all wars between Greek city-states were put on hold for the duration of the games (granted, in those days, the games were really short in duration). Instead, now, we have spectators acting like teenage kids, and Arab fencers acting like babies. Grow the fuck up and play sports like good little boys and girls! Forget the politics for a few days and compete for the honor of your nation (I know that the status of the Palestinians is up for debate, but for the sake of argument, let it lie for the moment).

I cannot begin to explain how disappointed I am in the international community for letting this kind of thing happen. It’s just sports, for cryin’ out loud!!!

2

No comments on incident 1…

As for incident 2, I still can’t decide who is more fucked up in the brain, the Israelis or the Arabs.

3

Er… what did the Israelis do? Have the temerity to hoist their own flag? Those bastards.

4

Anybody getting worked up about incident 1 needs to chill out. It’s football - they’re winding up another team and their supporters, with a sense of humour. It’s what happens.

Incident 2 just sounds fucked up. Can’t decide who’s got any moral stance.

5

Yes, people can be pretty bloody unsporting. (Though incident 1 sounds very like “ooh, I bet I know how we can wind our neighbour up…”)

OTOH, look at it from the other side. Not so long ago there was great debate about playing South Africa or not, in protest at Apartied. Then I wouldn’t find it so easy to say “But of course we should play.” Though, of course, typically, the team themselves wouldn’t be to blame so you should be polite to them.

6

I guess your memory’s kinda short, then. This sort of thing happens all the time: for example, the 1980 Olympics, and recently the controversy over the England cricket team playing in Zimbabwe. I agree it’s sad, but the Olympian ideals are forever being compromised.

I actually admire the pluck of the Israeli athletes, but it’s a shame that the other teams are to withdraw.

7

They booed when they scored a goal? what do you expect them to do? politely clap?

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That would be the equivalent of the Israeli soccer team playing the Norwegian tram in France, and having the crowd should “Hitler! Hitler! Hitler!” after every Israeli goal.

The US team should have walked out in protest. Watch half those people bopoing and shouting “Osama!” try to cross the Rio Grande the following week. Assholes.

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you misunderstand my post. The article complains about the opposition fans booing when they scored a goal. Aside from what else happened, what did they expect them to do when they scored? I agree with you that chanting “Ossama” was a step too far, though.

As an aside, do you think it is appropriate to equate one terrorist action, as grievous as it was, to the systematic attempted extermination of several races of people?

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They weren’t opposition fans, unless Mexico is now under control of Ottawa. From the OP:

You may be right about the extermination thing and comparing the shouting of “Osama! Osama! Osama!” to “Hitler! Hitler! Hitler!”, but don’t radical Islamic fundamentalists and the al-Queda crowd want extermination of western culture and the United States?

11

Yeah you’re right but they were ripping the piss out of the Americans with the most offensive thing they can think off. It obviously worked.

If you’re ever in the UK try to get a ticket to a football match. You will be very surprised at the level of abuse that gets throw around.

The US is probably not that popular with a lot of people at the moment and when you’re talking about Mexicans they may feel they have more than one reason.

It was a football match, the people there were slagging the US team who to them are the big bad. Who cares about Canada it’s the yanks ya want to piss off :wink:

Offensive maybe but not that surprising to anybody familiar with “the beautiful game”(football)

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Errrrrrm, in that case, it’s as much about the extermination of Mexico and Canada as it is the US. Frankly, comparing Osama to Hitler is laughable.

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Gee, you know, the casual reader would be excused for thinking that such incidents are only recent.

Well, students of history need go no further than the “24 hours in September”, and the infamous Israeli hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In comparison, both events outlined in the OP are mild, mild, mild.

For fuck’s sake… who throws a hand grenade into an Iriquois chopper with 3 Olympic athletes tied together, all totally helpless? And another chopper took 3 full clips from a machine gun and killed another 3 athletes, who also were tied together helpless.

Nope. Using sport to fuck with people’s heads? None of it’s new sadly…