In a few hours one of the most unexpected, and divisive, football matches in World Cup history will be played. The romantics, the searchers for a good old fashioned story of the team making it against all the odds will be hoping for an unlikely win for Syria in their playoff against Australia. This time I do not fall into that group. I am hoping that Syria get no closer to the World Cup. This is not a team that represents all of Syria, the people who's lives have been completely destroyed. This is a team that is used a as propaganda tool by the person who has destroyed so many innocent Syrian lives: President Bashar al-Assad.
The sad irony is that they are playing for a spot in Russia next year, a country that has contributed to the death, torture and disappearance of so many Syrian footballers.
From the Syrian Network for Human Rights:
-38 top-flight footballers killed in the civil war
-478 cases of athletes arrested by the Syrian government
From the Sydney Morning Herald (October 1st 2017):
"The list of dead footballers includes Ahmad Hesham Swedan, a 26-year-old with Syrian Premier League teams al-Karama and al-Wahda who was killed by shelling in Homs in 2012 and Jihad Qassab, a former captain of the national team who died inside Saidnaya military prison in Damascus in late 2016. Qassab, aged 41 when he died, led his club al-Karama to the 2006 Asian Champions League final. He was accused by authorities of making car bombs, an allegation he denied.
"At least 13 footballers are missing after being arrested, including Jamal al-Refaie, a player for Premier League club Jableh, who was detained near the Syria-Lebanon border in 2015 and has not been heard from since."
In 2015 the Syrian coach turned up at press conference wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Assad on it.
Staff with the team have compared football wins with the military victories by the Syrian army.
Ayman Kasheet , a former member of Syria's Olympic football team: "How can we consider that this team carries the same flag as the one on planes that killed children and civilians?"
Fifa has acknowledged that there are claims by several sides of violence in the country but has not taken any action against the team because "these alleged actions go far beyond the domain of sporting matters in a situation where the whole country is mired in civil war" Meaning, it's not really any of our business to interfere because we cannot take a side, or we cannot take a side against Vladimir Putin.
Tomorrow morning, at 10.30 am, Toronto time, I hope the Syrian dream of a first World Cup appearance is all but over. As unfathomable as it is for me to even come close to imagining, I hope that all those people who have absolutely nothing will one day be able to dream again.
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