Syria and football

Day -660. WorldCup2018

I'm looking through the fixture list of qualifiers in September. Syria play away to Uzbekistan on September 1st, followed by a "home" match against South Korea on the 6th. That amazes me on so many levels. Of all the matches listed on Fifa's website the Syria-South Korea one is the only match without a kick-off time. It hardly seems like the most important thing now, arranging a football match and finding a stadium and country (probably Iran) to host it. But on top of the thoughts of Syria putting out a football team when the country is in ruins, it strikes me on a very simple level how bizarre it is that the 20 players, plus coaching and management team, can take off to Uzbekistan and Iran to play football when so many other Syrians are trapped in the towns and villages and what is left of them. Yes, the team are known to be supporters of President Assad and the President is happy to use their success as a propaganda tool. But it is still incredible that Syria go ahead and play football. Bombs fall, people's houses are destroyed, thousands have no food or water. And the team goes off to Uzbekistan to play a football match.

It's almost as though a surreal parallel world where everything is normal exists in Syria. Assad would like us to think so. And football carries on.