It’s only football Mr. President!

(AFP) U.S. President Barack Obama By Mustafa Fetouri Dear President Obama When Qatar won the right to host the 2022 FIFA world cup against the United States as finalist I was expecting to hear barrage of foul cries from American soccer fanatics and perhaps couple of op-ed pieces in local papers making fun of Qatar and accusing FIFA of bias. All that was forthcoming immediately after the decision was announced: many U.S. media outlets, their Australian counterparts, and number of some Arabs as well contributed their share in questioning FIFA’s decision in some sense. But it was you Mr. President who surprised me the most with your quick ill considered reaction when you said that FIFA made the “wrong” decision by awarding the games to tiny Qatar. Yet Crown Price H.H. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani chose to say it was “slip of the tongue” on your part. A very polite reply; don’t you think sir! I wish you elaborated little more so I could understand what you mean sir. I’m unclear if he you meant the decision was wrong because Qatar won, because the USA lost, because the tournament is going to theMiddle East or, because the idea of tiny Qatar hosting the world cup is altogether wrong. Whatever you had in mind sir you surprised me. You made me rethink again about good article I wrote about you right after your famous Cairo speech. In it I played the devil’s advocate given your country’s history in our region. You also made me question the very basic values you seem to be cherishing. I know that The U.S. could make about 900 times as many Qatars, and your countrymen would make around 206 times as many Qataris, Qatar never hosted a world, and its summer temperature averages above 40 degrees Celsius. I know all that but Mr. President I’m not sure if that was the reason for which you have said what you have said! You came to power preaching not only fair play but also equal start for all with no room for cheating. In that Cairo speech, if you still remember, you talked of new beginnings with the Islamic world, told us something different, and above all wanted us to believe you and forget all about your notorious predecessor. Your favored slogan “yes we can” still rings in our minds. Yet; I think we have waited more than enough only to hear you complain about the World Cup. You did not complain about other major issues you promised to resolve such as the Jewish settlements which have so far eaten nearly Qatar’s total size of the West Bank and you still talk of a “Palestinian State”! Mr. President I could easily understand and accommodate the reactions of your football mad countrymen which are no more than our own football fanatics’ noise as usually the case in such circumstance but your reaction is something different. You also appeared surprised by the fact that huge America could lose to tiny Qatar. I’m sure you realize Mr. President that the world today is not the same as it was two decade ago and far from what it was just a decade before. Had it been the same you would not have been president of the United States now. I’m certain you also know that the rules of the game are not the same either. You probably agree with me that the world in which we live today is dynamic, changing, almost borderless, and above all lines between the powerful and the powerless are blurring. The very definition of power itself has changed Mr. President. No clear cut limits to what others can do or how they do it. It is here where Qatar won and America lost: how each side made its bid in a fair play on equal terms notwithstanding FIFA’s alleged corruption. Even with FIFA’s dubious reputation the latest Wikileaks documents would give America the lead in any dirty game! If the world had not changed Mr. President you would not be obliged, for economic reasons, to visit huge poor India seeking to foster stronger and wider economic ties. I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that 1 out of 3 jobs in your country keep going to India, and that the bulk of IT companies cross America, indeed the world, depend heavily on India in one way or another. Digital India still poor and corrupt, maybe, but it’s competing successfully against giants like your own country mainly because the world that made India chronically poor and economically crippled does not exist any more and that India, like Qatar, successfully finding its niche. Tiny Qatar would have lost if it had tried to compete in size, population, GDP, public debt, or indeed technology but it chose to compete in innovative ideas however costly. The human race progresses because of innovation Mr. President. It’s hard to lose I know but football is about losing as much as it’s about winning as Mr. Seep Platter put it just before throwing his bomb by announcing Qatar as the winner not the United States. A sport, football in particular, is more than twenty two men chasing a ball; it’s about coexistence, talent, and human spirit where the game is played for that very reason: it’s a game! U.S.’s Al Udied Air base is still in Qatar and that is no secret. Some facilities might well be built near it, and many of its pilots would watch the tournament but that does not change the fact that FIFA World Cup is going to “new land” just as Mr. Platter put it. Awarding the games to Qatar says too many new things about the world but your reaction, unfortunately, only reinforces what people in this region already know or suspect America to be. I did not want to say this Mr. President but I feel obliged to. In our region people see America as selfish, double faced, greedy, and manipulative. While it preaches fair play it does not actually play fairly if it means losing. Fair play is lesson number one we go away with after a nice football match! Unfortunately, again, your leaked archives on Wikileaks’s only confirm what people already suspect or know about the USA. -- Mustafa Fetouri is an academic and political analyst based in Tripoli. He received the 2010 Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press for best opinion article.