Wed 24 Oct 2007
On this blessed occasion of Champions League football, I have to share this excellent ad shown on ART for this year’s Champions League promotion -
I got this ad from kooora.com forum.
I would love to know which agency came up with it if anyone knows! Very cool ad! I love the taxi driver the most! lol!
Wed 13 Jun 2007
I saw this website yesterday called myfootballclub.co.uk , which takes the internet and web 2.0 to a whole new level!
Basically, you register to the site and promise to pay ₤35 when the registered people reach 50,000! That will give the site around ₤1,400,000 after all the fees, and that money will go towards purchasing a football club to be run by the 50,000 owners!! All the decisions, even the formation and transfers will go through the 50,000 members who each own the same number of shares!
So basically I could own a second or third division club and affect the decisions of it from right here behind my desk in Kuwait!
Gotta love globalization!
Wed 6 Jun 2007
Kuwait was leading its group in qualifying to the olympics before the game against Bahrain today. All we needed was a point, which means a win or a draw would be enough for us to qualify.
Our game is at Bahrain, which is always a tough away game. It was 1-1 until injury time when Bahrain scored the winner which takes them to the next stage and kicks Kuwait out of the competition.
So far its normal, actually very expected! Our football teams like I said earlier are a reflection of our country, and we once dominated football in the gulf, but now we are lagging behind all the countries, and most countries enjoy games against us because our team sucks compared to Saudi, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and even the UAE!
I gave my opinion on our national team before … and before that!
Anyway like I said, the loss was expected and I actually don’t care anymore about the team.
What REALLY annoyed me is another thing that happened after the goal, as expected as our loss, our boys couldn’t just admit defeat and try to play out the remaining 2 minutes …. instead, as usual, there was a fight, and a Bahraini player on the ground with blood going down his nose!!
What the hell is wrong with us??? If this was the first time then I would say that shit happens and sometimes tempers fly, but the problem is that this kind of crap continues to happen all the time!!! Not just in Kuwait of course, but for some reason it happens ALOT here! Why can’t we accept defeat?? How often have you heard about fights during football and handball games in the past few years?? TOO OFTEN! In our case its not only players fighting with opposing players, but alot of times we have players fighting and attacking referees!!
They have no pride or understanding of what it means to represent their country!! Its not just a simple sports issue or problem, its a social widescale problem!
Tue 5 Jun 2007
The new logo for the 2012 Olympics in London was revealed today.
A jigsaw with the Olympic and 2012.
Ugly. And its part of £500,000 spending!!
Sun 18 Feb 2007
The other day I was discussing the issue of football with my wife. I was trying to explain to her the reason why I love the game. It got me thinking about this issue, and I reached an epiphany (heh, nice one).
What would make grown men act like children when a goal is scored? Why is it that when a player scores, he goes crazy running around and the fans also go crazy!
Personally, I’m a big fan of Arsenal and I almost never miss a game. A couple of weeks back, Arsenal came back to beat Manchester United 2-1, scoring 2 goals in the last 10 minutes including a last second goal! When Henry scored that goal, I actually jumped off my seat (more than once) from joy, as did the 60,000 fans in the stadium, and the players, and all the Arsenal supporters around the world!
I was thinking about the feeling of joy and happiness you get when that happens. I tried to think of anything else in the world that would make someone feel like that, and couldn’t think of a single thing! There is nothing that can make people that happy in that short amount of time!
That sudden surge of happiness or joy is shortlived but very very powerful! If we compare that feeling to another happy feeling, lets say a wife telling her husband that she’s pregnant, the happiness we get from that is much more powerful than a goal obviously, but the husband will not raise his arms in the air and run around like crazy from joy!
Why is that? Why is it that something so insignificant in the long run such as a goal scored can make a grown man run around like crazy while something so important like having a child will not!
The happiness from the child is long lasting and makes that person happy everytime he thinks about it, while the happiness from the goal is like an overdose injection of happiness that is temporary!
That thrill that sports fans get is something that people who dont like sports will never understand! That surge of adrenalin and sudden joy is incomparable with anything else (except maybe winning the lottery), but us sports fans get that feeling over and over during the course of the season!
So basically, my conclusion to why I love watching football and why it means so much to me is that I’m addicted to those feelings you get just like a drug, you keep wanting more of it! Plus there is a whole issue of belonging to that group of fans or team that probably need a whole different discussion
Examples of goal celebrations -
Tue 23 Jan 2007
From June 8th 2005 … More than a year and a half ago -
منتخبنا و رياضتنا كلها مثل وزاراتنا و مثل ثقافتنا و مثل فننا و مثل تعليمنا و مثل أي مجال آخر يحتاج الى تخطيط من الدولة …… عايش على البركة
دولتنا ديناصور يحتضر! العنصر الوحيد الحي في بلدنا هو الاقتصاد. و للأسف ليس بسبب التخطيط العظيم، بل لأسباب خارجية كارتفاع سعر النفط و انفتاح السوق العراقي
حال منتخبنا حال أي وزارة، اذا ذهبت لأي وزارة لوجدت فوضى و سوء ادارة و انعدام تخطيط و عدم وجود أي أهداف!! من ستلوم؟ الموظف الذي يستقبلك و يأخذ أوراقك؟ اذا كانت المسألة بهذه البساطة لتعدل الوضع بمجرد استبداله. و لكن أن يبقى الوضع في جميع الوزارات هكذا باستمرار فهو بالطبع مسؤولية الادارة! الحال نفسه مع المنتخب، سيتغير الفريق و سيتغير المدرب و لكن الفشل سيستمر!! و للأسف، المسؤولين عن تدهور الرياضة الكويتية و وضعها في الحضيض معصومين عن الخطأ، و النقد كفر أو انتحار مهني
سؤال بسيط، ماذا سيقنع المسؤولين عن الكرة الكويتية بالتنحي عن كراسيهم؟؟ كأس الخليج في أرضنا و حصلنا على المركز الأخير بدون احتساب اليمن!! الكأس التالي احرزنا المركز الرابع!! خسارة مذلة من المنتخب السعودي 3-0 مع الرأفة!! خسارة أقوى ب4-0 أمام كوريا على أرضنا و أمام جمهورنا!! احراز هدفين و دخول 10 أهداف علينا في خمس مباريات بالتصفيات! نوادينا تعتبر لقمة سائغة لأي فريق عربي أو آسيوي! منشآتنا الرياضية تقارن ببنغلادش! ملعبنا لاستضافة كأس الخليج يعتبر أسوأ ملعب استضاف البطولة منذ دورات عديدة!! وعدونا ببناء استاد جابر الرياضي ليستضيف كأس الخليج في ديسمبر 2003! و ها نحن لا زلنا ننتظر! اخفاقات متتالية تزداد سوءا كل عام!!؟
هل يعقل أن تكون الكويت، التي كانت رائدة في المنطقة، أن تكون الآن مثالا للفشل و التدهور في الرياضة و المسرح و التعليم و … و… و؟!؟
الطاقات موجودة، و الطموح متوفر، و الشباب الكويتي متعلم أكثر من غيره، و من الممكن أن يحقق المعجزات اذا توفر الجو المناسب. لكن للأسف .. الدولة ديناصور متهالك، و انعدام النظرة المستقبلية المتفتحة محبط
من سيطلق رصاصة الرحمة؟ و متى؟
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I wrote that article more than a year and a half ago, I was in Qatar for work, and I remember watching the Kuwait - Korea game alone in my hotel room. It was a 4-0 loss, I was devastated and I remember I had so much anger in me. I went straight to an internet cafe across the road and I wrote this down as quickly as possible without really thinking beforehand, I was just very angry.
Since then, we have -
Our display was disgraceful AGAIN. The only difference this time was instead of feeling bad, I was actually very happy and was actually jumping from joy when UAE scored in the last minute to win 3-2.
During our first game against Yemen, I was invited at a diwaniya and was watching the game with about 20 people. Only 2 people were supporting Kuwait, the rest (including me) were making fun of them and we all cheered when the referee gave Msa3ad Nida a red card.
Today’s game against the UAE was at a smaller setting wth 4 other guys, where only 1 guy was supporting Kuwait and the rest of us were mocking him.
I dont blame anyone who did that too, because when you have 21 people out of 24 people supporting the other team, there has to be a reason for that. The reason noone is supporting the team is not because of the players or the coach, I think the players are as good if not better than the UAE or Yemen (not Oman), and we could beat them. And the coach is not at fault either because although he was average, that is our capacity at most at the moment.
Everyone cheering against the team is in fact against the system. We are all venting our anger about how things are run through our anger at the team.
The people in charge of sports - Ahmad Al-Fahad, Talal Al-Fahad, Ahmad Al-Yousif, and so on, are all selfish people who use sports as a stepping stone and dont give a shit about the advancement of the country’s sports. They singlehandedly RUINED sports in Kuwait. What Kuwait built over 30 or 40 years was all ripped up and destroyed by these thugs. Everyone who is happy to see the team fail is hoping that someday these people will realize that there is noone else to blame.
The problem is that they seem to not care, or ignore the fact that they are HATED by everyone who loves Kuwait and sports. So many attempts (mostly shy ones) have happened to create an issue out of this and asking them to resign.
What we got was Ahmad Al-Yousef resigning and then coming back because as he said, the people want him back! WTF?? NOBODY WANTS ANY OF YOU GUYS RUINING KUWAIT’S NAME ANYMORE!!
I think Ahmad Al-Fahad or his brother Talal Al-Fahad will take full advantage of this situation. They will try to force Ahmad AlYousef out to look like heroes, and then ……….. they will put one of their younger brothers in his place, and the circle of corruption and pissing on sports continues. Their father, sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad, was a man who dedicated his life to sports and was able to take Kuwait places. None of these guys is even half dedicated.
Look at other sports in Kuwait, the only really successful sport is Handball (which by the way we are in the World Cup and playing at the moment), and the reason for our success is that the people in charge of the handball federation are actual lovers of the game who have played before or have been involved since a younger age. We have won every regional competition, and the Asian Cup, and reached the World Cup. Who is the head of the Kuwait Handball Association?? I don’t know. What I do know is that he is not a Saba7i, otherwise his name would be in the front page every day. I am glad I don’t know the guy’s name, it shows that whoever is handling the game doesn’t care about the flash and media, they are concentrating on their job.
OK all I was supposed to do was repost the old article but I guess I ranted alot too. Sorry about that, and good night.
Sun 17 Dec 2006
In my last post, I talked about how Qatar nationalized more than 30 athletes for the Asian games. Basically they got people from different regions for different sports, for example they brought Bulgarians for weightlifting, Kenyans for running, Chinese for chess, and so on (perfect stereotypes I know but its true).
Everyone in the comment section spoke disapprovingly of that action even some Qatari guests of the blog. It does not represent their country, how can someone support and feel proud of someone who they just bought for the games to represent their country!?
Anyway, that was the subject there … In today’s post, it is a very different subject but related in many ways. Today I want to talk about the opening and closing ceremonies for the Asian Games in Doha 2006.
To get straight to the point, it was a fairytale ceremony, and by far the best ceremony I have ever seen for any competition. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen..period! I only caught glimpses of the opening ceremony earlier this month, since I saw it was an opening ceremony I didn’t even bother to keep the channel on and switched to watch something else. When I read the newspapers the next day talk about how great it was I didn’t pay attention either because they say the same after any ceremony, especially if hosted by a GCC country. But when I went to work the next day, the few people who saw it couldn’t stop talking about how great it was. (I am downloading it at home as we speak).
Two days ago, I was lucky enough to catch the closing ceremonies from the start. I couldn’t stop watching in awe and I couldn’t stop sending messages to everyone I know about it! Almost every message I got back was “I want to cry”.
It was nothing less than spectacular! The show itself, the performers, the story, the TV directing, everything was amazing!
The quality of the production and the scale of the production was same as or better than Cirque de Soleil. Basically, if I knew the show would be that good, I wouldn’t mind traveling to Qatar just to attend that! The theme was a 1001 Nights with many of the stories being acted out on a very big scale!
A comment I kept getting from some people was that yeah thats what money gets. OK, that might be true, but it also takes guts to take the ceremonies to that level. It could also be considered as an investment to Qatar, for reasons that I will get to later. In Kuwait, we have money, but we will never ever come close to doing something spectacular like that!! I can predict exactly what any future ceremony will be like ….. I see 2000 kids from elementary school wearing dara3aat for girls with lots of gold and small boys wearing dishdasha and ghutra holding ribbons and waving while singing about Kuwait and the emir. I know we’ve all seen that before, but trust me it will not change in the near future if we had a choice!
When we had the Gulf Cup a few years ago here in Kuwait, the ceremony was a typical ceremony that could’ve been done in the 60s and no one would notice the difference. Also, the money allocated for the tournament was apparently moving around and ended up going to certain pockets, and the few members of parliaments raised the issue but nothing happened with diwan al mo7asaba as far as i know. So saying that they spent on it is not an excuse, we have money but we have thieves in charge who steal the money and dont give a shit about the image of the country as long as a half assed job is done and they remain in their chairs.
Picture from the opening ceremony at the Gulf Cup we hosted last.
Back to the investment by Qatar. They spent ALOT of money on this ceremony obviously (DAE, the company that was in charge of the show), but there are a couple of good reasons that this makes sense to them. First of all, every single person who saw the show anywhere in the world (the Asian games is the second largest event in size after the Olympics) is in shock and has a certain view of Qatar after the games as a very modern very young up and coming place. The image they got after the games cannot be measured in dollars. Another major reason this investment makes sense is that Doha is competing to host the 2016 Olympics, and they showed how well they can host an event, and in 10 years they can host an event 10 times bigger.
Speaking of the Olympics, the ceremony in Doha was so good that it got the China 2008 Olympic committee nervous (source 1, source 2). It will be very very hard for anyone to reach that level again!
I have nothing but total respect to the organizers of the games. Unfortunately the only thing that ruined the ceremony was Ahmad Al-Fahad attending and giving a speech!
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This whole issue of how Qatar has proved itself and put itself on the map made us get into a discussion the other day about Kuwait and its future.
Personally I am very pessimistic and see no reason for hope for us here. My opinion is that it will be very hard for us to convince our children in the future that Kuwait was once the leader in the region! We were exporting culture in poetry, music, tv shows, and we even had people coming from abroad to study in the great Kuwait University back in the 60s and 70s!!
We will be like Egypt. Our parents still love Egypt and see the greatness in it because they lived during that period and saw it at its prime, whereas our generation and younger generations have a totally different view of Egypt to the point where it doesnt seem like Egypt was once as great as they say! With all due respect to the people of Egypt, it is a country in a very bad shape and noone wants to be like them! Will our children see Kuwait as we see Egypt??
Mon 11 Dec 2006
What do these people have in common??
Israf Khan 
Amer Salem ALBadri
James Kwalia Chepkurui 
Ziad Benlouaer
Hakan Nuraydin 
Richard Yatich
Chen Zhu 
Onèsphore Nkunzimana
Angel Popov 
Waleed Hanfi
Riaz Khan 
Souroush Khalili
Mohammad Siddiq 
Ahmed Abdulla
Mohammed Sayid Zandavi 
David Nyaga
Yani Marchokov 
Thomas Kosgei
Angel Ivanov 
Bekita Muwangua
James Kipkemboi Katui 
Badar Areef
Jafar Khan 
Sayedabbas Zandavi
Abduljabbar AlMaalem 
Daniel Kipkosgei
Sebastian Quintana 
Elijah Kosgei
Abdulla Obaid Koni
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Yes, you guessed right….they are all athletes representing Qatar in the Asian games in Doha.
The athletes above come from - Kenya, China, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey, Iran, and probably alot more countries!
The names I have on are their real names, otherwise known as “other names” on their profile!!
Now I have nothing against nationalizing people who benefit your country, but there has to be a limit for the scale of something like that! To have 3 or 4 people is fine, but more than 30 athletes from abroad is pushing it! I didnt look at every single name in this list, and I didnt put all the others I saw….take ur time to browse through it and enjoy it!
I guess winning has to come at any cost!?
Mon 10 Jul 2006
Italy win the World Cup. Definitely not the best team in the tournament, had an easy route to final, beating the might Australians 1-0 with a very dodge penalty in the last minute of te game, and then first timers Ukraine to reach the semi. They met a decent team there in Germany and played a decent last 2 mins to win (thats just me being biased).
Italy finally won a penalty shootout. France did well and were the better team for most of the game, Italy only had 3 shots on goal all game, France more than 10. But then came Zidane…
Playing his last game, he definitely will never be forgotten for the way he ended his football career!
Niiiice!
Oh well ….. Materazzi mustve said something really bad to deserve that hit! I hate that player more than any other Italian, always have hated him for his cheating.
I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw that, its like something out of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter! I doubt it cost the French the game, with only 7 mins remaining, and penalties are just luck, although I must admit all the Italian penalty kicks were perfectly placed!
Ok, now for a few weeks of emptiness….
I need something to make up for the loss of football after his wonderful month!
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مسجات بعد الطرد بخمس دقائق -
مؤامرة ضد العرب طرد زيدان من النهائي … عيب يالخرافي الجابرية ليست للبيع
تم تحويل زيدان للمستشفى للإشتباه به بالإصابة بإنفلونزا التيوس
Sat 1 Jul 2006
This is a pictorial of today’s action -
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Beautiful Berlin -
The holy grail!
Ready for action!!
They’re ready too all over the city!
On our way to the stadium, patriotism in all its forms!
The battlefield -
The man mountain sitting (mostly standing) exactly in the seat in front of me!
This is very cool …. you can tell the score and the progress of the game in the next few pictures -
After the Germany - Argentina, my wife and I headed straight to the Sony Center to watch the second game here …. a bit better than the diwaniya I think ;P
