I’ve never heard of Arab countries having any kind of professional sports leagues. I suppose soccer would be the sport of choice if there was one. Do any have professional sports teams, and, if not, does Islam forbid sports or some aspect of sports? It’d be nice if kids had idols other than terrorists and a national pastime other than hating infidels.
Most such countries have national soccer teams, and participate in international play. I do not know about national leagues. I do remember that Iran’s team was painfully friendly and upbeat during their World Cup trials match against the U.S. (when was that, 2000? 1998?)
I don’t have the slightest interest in sports, but arab countries definitely have soccer teams. I hear the results of the games, when I listen to “Radio-France Internationale”, for instance.
I also remember an incident which happened during some world cup, when during a game, some major official from some country in the Arabic Peninsula left the public galleries and entered the playing field to contest a referee decision. I wouldn’t know if people are as interested in soccer in the middle-east as they are in Europe, but it seems to be the case in north-Africa.
I’m sure the kids have idols other than terrorists :rolleyes:
Sure. In fact, Morocco’s been trying to host the World Cup, and Egypt’s Zamalek Club beat Morocco to win the 2003 African Super Cup. Also, Kuwait just won the Gulf Cup. There also used to be an Arab Cup, but I’m not sure if it was played last year.
Iran is VERY proud of their amateur wrestlers.
I think you’re tarring Arab countries with too large a brush with your final sentence, which is needlessly offensive. Not all kids in all Arab nations idolise terrorists. Not all are consumed with hating Westerners. Heck, most Arab nations have cordial relations with the West.
Off the top of my head, several Arab nations compete internationally in football. Saudi Arabia and Tunisia made it to FIFA 2002 in Japan/Korea. I also remember Iran beating Australia in a qualifying match.
199 nations competed at the Sydney Olympics, of which a number were Arabic countries. Iran won three gold medals (weightlifting and wrestling) and bronze. Morrocco, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait also won medals.
Branching out into Islamic nations, Pakistan fields one of the best (field) hockey teams and one of the best cricket teams in the world. Indonesia has a strong sporting tradition in badminton and (of all things) women’s weighlifting.
So yeah, they’ve got other things to do besides hating your freedom.
National football associations and federations in Asia. Click on any particular country listed for more information.
Iraq sports news.
Saudi Arabia football news.
Egypt football news.
Iran sports news.
There are two professional cricket leagues in Islamic nations.
A schedule of the Bangladeshi National Cricket League for 2003-04. (Or, to denote it by its proper title, the “Ispahani Mirzapur Tea National Cricket League.”)
An overview of the Pakistani domestic cricket season, 2003-04. Faisalabad won both the Quaid-e-Azam Cup (four-day) and Quaid Trophy (one-day) tournaments.
There are also a handful of Islamic nations which have semi-pro leagues; one, the United Arab Emirates, is an Arab nation.
Qatar also has a professional soccer league, which has featured the likes of Gabriel Batistuta, Romario, Fernando Hierro, Steffan Effenberg, and Frank Leboeuf (all of whom, admittedly, were past their prime by the time they signed with Qatar clubs).
That was rather an ignorant OP, I have to say. Yeah, those A-rab kids love to idolise terrorists.
A minute or two of Googling brought up:
The Iranian domestic football league
Indonesian football league stats
Hell, even the Saudi Arabian domestic league, which has 12 teams.
So yes, Arabs do play sport. They don’t sit around in the sand all day plotting to blow up infidels. :rolleyes:
I remember that:
(Cite)
Don’t they have camel racing in some of those countries (no joke)?
Why would it be a joke?
[url=http://www.allcamels.com/sf/vccr/]Wacky Americans race camels, too
Just to clarify one recurrent mistake here - Iranians are not Arabs. They don’t identify as Arabs, the Arabs don’t identify them as Arabs and they don’t speak Arabic. (Just to confuse matters, a very small percentage of Iran’s population is Arab, but that doesn’t make them an Arab nation.) Other replies have also brought in the Turks, the Pakistanis and the Indonesians.
Perhaps the question should be reframed to exclude Arabs and only mention Muslims?
No one in this thread has claimed that Iranians are Arabs. The subject line of the original post was “Islamic and/or Arab countries. . .”
Of course, you’re right. I did want everyone to know the context in which I was asking the question, but I put it in less than delicate terms.
As others have said, Pakistan (not an Arab state, but Islamic) is very good at field hockey and cricket. A Pakistani that I know explained to me that in Pakistan, the hero worship doesn’t exist on the level it does in the U.S. Athletics are seen as games, and I got the impression that people that were athletic were kind of thought of as not putting as much effort into learning/school.
The Iraqi soccer team’s progress may have been hindered by the fact that Mr.Hussein(he in the hole) would have them tortured if they did not win their games…
To be fair, lampchop’s interjection is partly correct. While I separated out Pakistan and Indonesia as Islamic but not Arab countries in my post, I screwed up on Iran, which I grouped with Arabic countries.
lemon_martini2, FWIW Uday, not Hussein-in-a-hole, was responsible for the portfolio of Torturing the National Football Team. (But Iraq have made it to the Athens Olympics!)