Written by: Abdullah Al-Harazi
Last Sunday in the Qatari capital, Doha, was different in terms of the sun and the cold. The sun was shining, and the breezes of the day were cold, but it filled the hearts with a downpour of love, and the soul with an abundance of happiness that it would live with for the rest of its life.
Perhaps this was the feeling of the special group of distinguished athletes, administrators, media professionals, and even men of community contributions in the Arab world from the ocean to the Gulf, whom the Arab Union for Sports Culture has become accustomed to honoring in the last six years, unique in its awards from other Arab and non-Arab sports and social organizations and bodies. The awards are given to the distinguished, and from the distinguished, the creative and outstanding are selected according to the criteria of giving, performance, ethics, and commitment to values. We are a moderate nation that has risen to glory with principles, and has dominated the world with sound ethics and values. The Islamic religion came to perfect in its sons over time the noble ethics that the Arab Union for Sports Culture is now calling for and for which it is waging the most difficult confrontation with sports fanaticism that the visual media spreads by the number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years through dozens of programs and hundreds of sports and non-sports channels in search of profit with more spectators (!!!). There is no power or strength except with God, forgetting and ignoring that the word destroys what wars are unable to do, and that the message is a trust that the heavens and the earth have disavowed. The mountains and youth are the future of the homelands and their constructive arms.
The talk is long, and the complaint is becoming more bitter in the throat due to what is happening, and the situation is not getting any better soon, perhaps we will delve into its depths in the coming days, and now we will suffice with the previous hints, and return to the title of the topic, my memories in Qatar, which I visited for the first time in 1988, accompanying the Saudi national team defending its title as champion of the Asian Cup, which remained Saudi for the second time, and from the land of Doha, the marches of joy were launched to spread throughout all parts of the Kingdom, and my joy at that time was double joy, the Greens’ victory in the cup as I was one of the work team, and then my obtaining the title of “Best Journalist in the Asian Cup” in a poll conducted by the Qatari newspaper Al Raya, and that was the first award I received in my media career.
I returned to Doha in 1993 to cover the most difficult Asian and even global football qualifiers for the World Cup due to the “geopolitical” atmosphere left behind by the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The teams were carrying on their shoulders mountains of worries and political pressures that linked sports to politics and made football losses the mother of defeats “!!!” As for the media in those qualifiers, they were like someone dancing on the heads of snakes and walking on burning fire with bare feet. Despite all of that, the Saudi Green qualified for the “World Cup America 94” for the first time, and I was blessed with the good fortune of qualifying to travel to America and participate in the World Cup for the second time, as the first was in Italy 90, and I obtained it with the good reputation of Al-Madina newspaper with the International Federation of Football, and it has a story that I will tell the honorable reader in my memoirs, God willing. This week, I returned to Doha to ascend the podium of coronation, honor, and appreciation with the Arab Union Award for Sports Culture 2024 – Media Branch with four colleagues from Qatar, Iraq, Tunisia and Saudi Radio, in a joyful ceremony attended by three Arab Ministers of Youth and Sports in Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon, along with three senior officials in the Arab League and sponsored by the Qatari Minister of Youth and Sports.
It is a coincidence that the ceremony was held in the Aspire area, which symbolizes Qatar’s excellence in sports work and hosts Khalifa International Stadium, the first modern stadium in Qatar, which hosted the 1988 Asian Cup and the 1993 World Cup qualifiers, but it changed completely with Qatar hosting the most advanced and beautiful version of the World Cup “Qatar 2022”.
I fully realize that I have gone on and on and the talk is not over, and there are men and institutions that deserve our thanks in this regard, foremost among them is the Arab Federation for Sports Culture, the owner of the “Most Beautiful, Most Elegant and Best” award, as it calls for morals, motivation for excellence, and urging institutions and individuals to be creative and provide the best in the fields of sports, sports thought, and social and humanitarian services. These are works that the Board of Trustees of the award, headed by Mr. Muhammad Al-Manea, appreciates and values, far from emotions and color affiliations to clubs and teams that control our emotions as fans and media professionals, and even in belonging to homelands. Thanks go to the Federation’s management, led by media colleague Ashraf Mahmoud, who believed in the message and the sanctity of the goal and worked to achieve it. The organizing committee for the current session in Qatar, led by Mr. Muhammad Al-Manea, was the best supporter with the facilities and capabilities it provided, which are no longer surprising for a country that presented the best version in organizing the World Cup and before it the Asian and Arab Games.
