IBN KHALDUN

The beautiful game?

August 2010

While the eyes of the world were on the World Cup in South Africa this summer, an alternative tournament in Gaza showed how football has moved away from its origins

The captain of the French team kissed the World Cup trophy and then lifted it high above his head to mark France’s historic World Cup victory. The crowd in the bleachers was ecstatic; French tricolour banners and flags waved to the beat of “Allez les Bleus!”

This is not a flashback to France’s extraordinary win over Brazil at the Stade de France back in 1998. Nor is this a flight of fancy. The celebrations, which took place last month, were real enough as the boys from France ran around the pitch with their prize to the rousing adulation from their fans.

The contrast with the official FIFA World Cup held in South Africa this summer could not be starker – in that tournament, France were the laughingstock of the football world. Seen as undeserving competitors even before the tournament began, Les Bleus never made it past the first round, losing to the host nation after a very public display of Gallic arrogance by both the players and their coach. Even in Paris, fans who gathered near the Eiffel Tower to watch France’s last match on video screens booed their own team and cheered for South Africa.

But at the end of last month’s alternative World Cup tournament in Gaza, France beat Jordan in an exhilarating final and carted off the 36-centimetre Coupe du Monde statuette. Ad victorem spolias: to the victors go the spoils of war in more ways than one. Unlike the 18-carat gold trophy won by Spain in South Africa, which is worth more than $10 million, the winning prize was a replica made from melted shrapnel from Israeli missiles that were dropped on Gaza in 2008.

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