#Clemens Zavarsky

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[Disclaimer: This article appeared in ballesterer #122, in May 2017. Clemens Zavarsky provided these photos exclusively, please DO NOT remove or use them without credit!! This is my translation of his article, I am not affiliated with ballesterer, just a huge fan - thoroughly recommend it.]

Unfaltering

Text and photos: Clemens Zavarsky

Civil War and terrorism, the rise of the „Islamic State“, fights between rebels and the government  - in Syria and Iraq, daily life is all about survival. And through it all, unstoppably, the football rolls on.

Baghdad. Express highway. Route 1, northbound. The names on the street signs recall pictures from the news, Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra - these cities are associated with terror, misery and death. The further north, the more frequent the checkpoints. And the bullet-holes in the dilapidated buildings as well as the checkpoints. After two and a half hours we arrive at Samarra, the birthplace of Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badr, better known under his nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He’s the self-proclaimed Caliph of self-proclaimed Islamic State. There’s a boy wearing a Barcelona jersey selling Coca-Cola in front the spiral minaret, a dollar a six-pack. After 52 meters up steep steps we’re standing on the unsecured platform, looking down on the city. Two buildings stand out: The Golden Mosque and the football stadium.

Back in 2011 Samarra FC played here in the Iraqi Premier League. It went down shortly after - the club as well as football itself. In February that year, the Arab Spring arrived in the region. What had started as a movement to further democracy and social justice ended in catastrophe. In no time so-called Islamic State controlled large territories in Iraq and Syria. The Syrian civil war that started back then continues to this day, with dictator Bashar al-Assad committing acts of terrorism against his own people now as he did then. And yet in the face of all this, still there’s football being played.

ABANDONED SPLENDOUR „Well, what do you suggest we do?“, asks Hassanin Mubarak. „Sit still and wait for death?“ Mubarak is one of Iraq’s leading sports journalists. He’s tired of questions about football during battle and chaos, ever since the 1980s in his country one war has followed the next. „With an attitude like that, Germany would never have become world champion nine years after the Second World War.“ Iraq is yet far away from that, though not for a lack of initiatives. Seven new stadiums have been completed in the past three years on the initiative of the Ministry of Sports. They were financed by public funds along with the support of a few private sponsors. The most monumental new building is located in Basra in the country’s south-east. The area was heavily fought for during the Gulf Wars, today it’s more peaceful in that regard. The region is far away from ISIS territory, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. Kidnappings are a daily occurrence.

As we leave for Basra Sports City travel guide Jamal al-Quassim tells me „The children are crazy about football, they play everywhere. Almost every day one of them steps on a mine. The areas aren’t properly marked out.“ The streets surrounding the stadium are extremely busy, but not because of an upcoming game. It’s Imam-Ali-Day, one of the most important Shiitic holidays honouring the cousin of Prophet Muhammad. The guards at the checkpoints that have been erected every 100 meters seem more nervous than usual, except for those at the entrance to the stadium. They readily let us into the arena with a capacity of 65.000 people.

The stadium was built on the occasion of the Gulf Cup of Nations which Iraq was supposed to host in 2013. A monumental construction of around 550 million dollars, along with two smaller stadiums and a five-star hotel complex. „Then our bid for the Gulf Cup was denied“, says journalist Mubarak. „Because of ISIS. Unfortunately none of the officials had thought about that scenario and what would happen with the stadiums.“ A handful of games have been played there so far, the dream of it one day becoming the national stadium of Iraq now a distant prospect. The Iraqi national team, just like Syria's, currently has to host their home games abroad. „And even if one day there are international games in Iraq again, it will be in the Al-Shaab Stadium in Baghdad“, according to Mubarak.

THE GAME MUST GO ON On one of the smaller pitches next to Basra International Stadium there’s a league game taking place that day. Naft al-Janoob, the club of state-owned South Oil Company, is facing al-Karkh from Baghdad. A crowd of fewer than a thousand spectators is watching the clash of the two mid-table teams. The sight that presents itself within the stadium is predominantly green and blue - the colours of the uniforms of the countless soldiers and policemen present. A small group of fans in the long side of the stands tries to create an atmosphere, waving flags and intoning the occasional fan chant. But the majority of the crowd remain in their seats. „The clubs in Basra have little to offer when it comes to the sport“, says Mubarak. „It’s a whole different story with the derbies in Baghdad.“ Al-Zawraa, al-Talaba, al-Quwa al-Jawiya and al-Shorta are the four big clubs in Iraq’s capital. Clashes between them often draw crowds of up to 45.000 people.

„We just consider ourselves normal supporters“, Yaseen Kabash of „Ultras Green Harp“ of Police Sports Club al-Shorta tells ballesterer. „The ultra groups are hardly politically active anyway.“ There are enough rivalries already, especially with the clubs from the Kurdish regions. „They abuse the players from Baghdad, calling them Arabs, even though the majority of their players aren’t Kurds themselves but hail from Baghdad“, says journalist Mubarak. Iraqi Kurdistan’s flagship, Erbil SC, had to withdraw their team from the league in December. „The big clans used to invest a lot of money into the clubs“, says Mubarak. „Now they’ve run out of money.“ Last season already Duhok SC, another Kurdish club, went down into the second division by choice.

Altogether there are currently 20 clubs from eight cities represented in the top division. In 2014, when northwest Iraq was overrun by ISIS, the championship was cut short, but apart from that the association managed to keep the competition running. This season, for the first time since 2003, even the cup could be carried out. But it’s not a stable system yet. „You just have to look at the league, how unorganised it is. The games schedule gets shifted all the time.“ says Yaseen Kabash, the fan. Though journalist Mubarak puts it into perspective, saying league football was just reflecting the state of society in general. „The people in charge don’t think of the future. Politics are pervaded by corruption, and so is football.“ But at the same time the sport offers some structure and a bit of normalcy in the face of chaos, and everyone can do it. As soon as the sun sets the football games begin on the improvised pitches from Basra to Baghdad.

TARGETING THE STADIUM But accidentally stepping on a mine, spread across the country by the millions, is not the only way to risk your life playing football. In July 2016 a video from Raqqa, the Syrian capital of ISIS, shocked the public. It showed five kneeling men, clad in orange, wearing blindfolds, behind them five ISIS fighters in uniform. One of them said a few words into the camera, then they started beheading the men. Four of the five executed were local celebrities: Osama Abu Kuwait, Ahmed Ahawakh, Nehad al-Hussen and Ihsan al-Shuwaikh. The official charge was espionage for the Kurdish militia but there are strong doubts about that, persistent rumours paint a different picture. Supposedly they were doomed by their field of work: They were professional footballers of local club al-Shabab Raqqa.

These executions weren’t the first terrorist act in football. In January 2015 in Mosul members of ISIS shot 13 teenagers for watching the Asian Cup match between Iraq and Jordan on TV. The bodies were left by the terrorists to lie in the streets for days. The parents weren’t allowed to bury their children. In March 2015 45.000 people had come to Baghdad’s al-Shaab Stadium to watch the Derby between al-Zawraa and al-Quwa al-Jawiya when a series of bombs detonated around the stadium killing 30 people. In June 2016 a suicide bomber in Al-Shuhadaa stadium 50 kilometers south of Baghdad blew up himself during a trophy ceremony, killing 41 people.

Football is an efficient target for ISIS attacks. And yet even the terrorist organisation can’t just discount the sport as a mere symbol of the godless west. When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his caliphate in the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul on 5 June 2014, to honour the occasion there was a games day - with a Qur’an quoting competition and a football tournament. ISIS wants to take advantage of football, so they have to control it. As soon as it threatens to interfere with the fulfillment of religious duties it has to be forbidden or at least regulated. Though it’s hard to clarify just what these rules are. ISIS doesn’t want to simply carry on with Islamic tradition: „They want to re-introduce Islam in their name“, Christoph Reuter, journalist of Der Spiegel wrote in his book „The Black Power“. „People under ISIS-control had to repeat their Pledge of Allegiance as new Muslims.“ Nothing from before is valid anymore. The ISIS charter prohibits all and any convenience, including smoking, Facebook and sometimes football, too. „ISIS destroyed everything. Qur’an doesn’t prohibit football, quite the opposite“, Khaled Saleh tells ballesterer. The 29 year-old used to play as goalkeeper for Syrian second division team Darrayya, before he managed to flee to Vienna with his wife and child. „The Prophet encourages physical exercise.“

LIMITS OF „OMNIPOTENCE“ ISIS has a different interpretation, invoking the fatwa issued by Saudi cleric Abdallah al-Najdi in the year 2003. Comprising 15 items it condones football only with severe modifications. The sport is supposed to serve jihad. The set of rules appears bizarre in its details: after scoring a goal it is forbidden to run back and have your teammates hug you. Terms like „foul“ and „corner“ are not allowed. Referees should be dispensed with completely, if there are injuries the punishment should be carried out according to sharia law - an eye for an eye, a cruciate ligament tear for a cruciate ligament tear.

What seems like an endless religious discussion is actually, according to Spiegel reporter Reuter, a craving for total power acted out to the last degree. And so-called Islamic State doesn’t offer room anyway for debate on what gets forbidden and what doesn’t. „It’s decided somewhere high up“, Reuter writes. Which does not at all mean that everybody in the organisation with its decentralised leadership will behave accordingly. When powerful local emirs make different judgements concerning the sport in their territories, none of ISIS’ ideological leaders really care. Which is probably one of the reasons why the organisation never managed to ban football from its territory. Some even consider this a symbolic victory, the sport could be regarded as an act of resistance. „Football should play a central role in the fight against the extremists“, says Jamal al-Quassim. „The freedom and the soul of the game are the perfect antidote against extreme ideas."

But all rhetoric aside, ISIS, too, know about football's lasting attractiveness. Abu Otaiba is a self-declared Imam of ISIS, he used to recruit fighters in Jordan. „We can’t go to the mosques anymore“, he told Wall Street Journal in 2016. „There's too much surveillance there. So I go to the football grounds. We take [the recruits] to farms […] and we organise football games to bring them closer to us.“ Besides, many of ISIS' fighters come from abroad and don’t want to forego their usual comforts in jihad. „Internet cafés were open for the ISIS fighters“, says former footballer Saleh. „In 2014, while they had forbidden everyone else to watch the world cup on TV, they themselves were watching on their smartphones."

ALI ADNAN, RECRUIT Back in Samarra. „We have to be careful“, travel guide Jamal al-Quassim says as we’re walking through the streets. „There are still a lot of ISIS informers here.“ This fully bearded Austrian is being critically watched by the Shiitic militia, too. More than once my passport is demanded, our four water bottles get confiscated, and protesting’s not really advisable. The soldiers are thirsty in the afternoon heat. Not far from one of the checkpoints in the setting sun a few teenagers have built an improvised football field in between a dozen army vehicles, the goals made out of two tires each. The players wear jerseys of international top clubs, as well as the Iraqi national team jersey with the number six. It’s got the name Ali Adnan on it. „Our national hero“, Jamal al-Quassim says with a smile. Because Ali Adnan made it to a European top league. Since 2015 the 23-year-old has been playing for Udinese in Serie A. At the U20 world cup in Turkey in 2013 the defender led his Iraqi team to the semi-finals, they ended up in fourth place.

But Adnan is a hero, too, because as Iraq’s most prominent footballer he took a political stand. „He’s a symbol for the resistance against ISIS“, says al-Quassim. In 2014 Adnan posed for a photo with Iraqi soldiers, clad in uniform. The picture made him even more famous than he’d already been. These days Ali Adnan doesn’t want to comment on political matters anymore. „At least until the situation in Iraq improves“, as it says in a message from Udinese’s press office to ballesterer.

In fact, step by step it seems to be improving even now. October 2016 saw the beginning of the Iraqi military offensive on Mosul. The east part of the city has already been freed. „Mortar shells in the west, penalties in the east“, Fache Wilson wrote in his report for football magazine So Foot in March this year. Amateur players come together once again for organised football games on the pitch of Mosul FC. „The club’s premises have been reduced to rubble, but the essential part is intact: the pitch.“ The buildings had been used by the jihadis to store weapons, on two occasions they were targeted by air strikes. During ISIS occupation the teams of the amateur league weren’t allowed to hold their games. So they just played inofficial training matches. Football in Mosul took place according to the rules of ISIS. „No logos on the kits, no games during prayer times and they broke off games whenever it suited them“, Wilson writes. „The Jihadis forbade the referee from using his whistle, supposedly because the noise conjured demons.“ „It happened several times that ISIS fighters joined in on our games“, 28-year-old Nawfal Mohammed is quoted in So Foot. „They were guys from our neighbourhood, I went to school with some of them. They were good boys, just one day they told their parents: If you don’t give me money I’ll go and work for ISIS.“ Because when the IS conquered Mosul in June 2014, the terrorist group possessed large amounts of money. They had just captured 500 billion Iraqi Dinars, about 318 million Euros, from the central bank. Local fighters werde paid up to 550 Euros a month, foreigners even up to 800. „By now the wages are almost at zero. ISIS is running out of money as well as fighters“, Spiegel reporter Reuter tells ballesterer.

BOMBS FROM THE REGIME ISIS’ warfare isn’t always about rational goals. The town of Dabiq, 40 kilometres north of Aleppo, is of no strategic value to the fighters, but it does have symbolic value. ISIS named its propaganda magazine after the Syrian place. According to Sunnite beliefs, the town, currently home to about 3.500 inhabitants, will be the site of the epic battle at the end of time. The jihadis conquered it in August 2014, in October 2016 they were driven out again by a local rebel group. Dabiq is also the home of Yasser al-Haji. In his youth he played for the U21 national team, now he’s in his early fifties and a few years back he invested all of his savings into the local football club, building a sports ground with artificial turf, floodlight, a playground and a cafeteria. When the Arab Spring began in 2011, al-Haji desperately hoped dictator Bashar al-Assad would be overthrown. But that didn’t happen; instead there was state terrorism and the Syrian Air Force.

A competitor who’s actually loyal to the regime saw his sports ground destroyed not even a kilometer away in a missile strike; nobody was killed. „The attack was aimed at me“, says al-Haji who’s in contact with the FSA, the Free Syrian Army that was founded in 2011. They set up their own football association themselves with its seat in Turkey. The kits are green - the colour of the revolution. The team has had some success in smaller tournaments against Lebanese and Palestinian clubs. „ISIS forbade football, Assad bombed it“, al-Haji tells ballesterer. „There’s no football left in Syria.“

In November 2016 the dictator offered the rebels in Aleppo a friendly match, it ended up being played by two teams of the Syrian army.

The break in Syrian football came with the civil war, the structures of civil society destroyed, including football. „The players have lost five, six years of their careers“, says Yasser al-Haji. „That cannot be compensated.“ And yet it's of comparably little consequence. Other former Premier League players like Iyad Quaider and Louay al-Omar were captured and tortured to death, allegedly proven by photos smuggled from prison and published online. The stadiums in Latakia, Dera and Baniyas were turned into temporary prison camps, the Abbasiyyin Stadium in Damascus converted into a military base.

THE PROPAGANDA LEAGUE And yet in the meantime, the state of Syria is sanctioning professional football again. There aren’t many private investors in the league, the clubs - similar to Iraq - are assigned to state institutions like army club al-Jaish and the Police Sports Club al-Shorta. This year’s favourite for the title are Tichreen SC from Latakia, who, fittingly, have their home games in Al-Assad Stadium. Al-Jaish, al-Shorta and al-Wahda traditionally belong to the group of favourites as well. On 23 December 2016 the Syrian Premier League started into its new season. „A farce, a bad joke“, says al-Haji. „It’s a pure propaganda league for Assad. He uses football to paint a fake picture of normalcy to the world."

Nominally the teams in this league of 16 represent seven towns, among them Aleppo and Homs, which have been completely destroyed. There’s even a team from Deir ez-Zor, yet controlled by ISIS. But all games take place either in Damascus or Latakia, supposedly the safest cities in the country. „It’s nothing to do with professionalism“, says al-Haji. „Before the civil war started we were on the right track.“ In 2004 al-Jaish won the AFC Cup, the Asian counterpart to the Europa League. In 2010 al-Ittihad became the second Syrian team to manage that feat. Both squads got an official reception by president Assad, with a lot of media attention. Even today the sport is very important for the regime, as the acting director of the Syrian Association, Fadi Dabbas, openly admits in a BBC documentary from 2017. „Football conveys a picture of the true Syria“, he says. „A Syria that is thriving despite the war.“

NO COMPROMISES As a matter of fact a qualification for the coming world championship is yet in the realm of possibility for the national team. With three more rounds to go, Syria is four points behind third place, which would get them into play-offs. For the regime, on the one hand that would mean a great propaganda success, but on the other hand it would also pose a great risk. Recently international appearances by the squad have repeatedly been used for protests by the opposition.

Even at the beginning of the civil war representatives of the Syrian Association were rather tight-lipped at international press conferences. Before the qualification matches for the Olympic Games in 2012, for example, questions about politics were off-limits. Even though at that time especially journalists were dying to enquire about Abdulbasset al-Saroot. The Olympic team’s goalkeeper played at Karamah, the most successful Syrian club from Homs, the stronghold of the Anti-Assad-protests. Al-Saroot was politically active and became a leading figure of the protest movement. He’s said to have joined the FSA first, then, allegedly, he joined ISIS and finally the Al-Nusra Front. Just like Firas al-Khatib. The striker is considered one of the best young Syrian players of the recent past. In 53 international games he scored 26 times. In 2012 he took a stand in favour of the opposition and publicly spoke out against the regime. As a player in Kuwait he was mostly safe from persecution. What is curious is that in the middle of March, at the last world cup qualifier against Uzbekistan, he was part of the squad again for the first time in six years. „I assume he made a deal with Assad“, says Khaled Saleh.

The dictator will probably stay in power, his overthrow by the rebels seems unlikely. What’s going to happen beyond that is unclear yet. Syria is in danger of falling apart. „I don’t know whether the country and its football can recover from this civil war“, says Yasser al-Haji, the former footballer and current Assad-opponent. In Iraq the army is on the brink of driving ISIS out of the country. But there are strong doubts there, as well, that it will continue to exist within its borders as they are today. The Kurds, whose militias are crucial allies in the fight against the terrorist group, seek independence. Whatever the future will look like for the region, the football will roll on. Because, as journalist Mubarak put it, back in Baghdad: Sitting still and waiting for death is not an option._______