Arab Games
The Arab Games, created to promote unity among the Arab states, have a long history of strife, boycott, and violence. Established by the Arab League in 1951, the Arab Games were held for the first time in 1953 under the direction of Egypt’s Ahmed Touny in Alexandria, Egypt.Women were not allowed to participate until the sixth games in 1985, in Casablanca.Irregular Schedule
The goal is to hold the games every four years, like other regional games, and that goal was met for the first four occasions. These games were held in Alexandria, Egypt (1953), Beirut, Lebanon (1957), Casablanca, Morocco (1961), and Cairo, Egypt (1965).
Tripoli, Libya, was awarded the 1969 games, but a change in government stopped these plans. Sudan offered Khartoum as host in 1971, but instead Syria was asked to host games in 1974. The Israel-Arab war in October of 1973 interrupted those plans. Syria finally hosted the games in 1976. The next games were planned for 1980, but the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict postponed plans to 1982, but the next games were not held until 1985 in Casablanca.
In January 1984, the Council of Arabian Ministers of Youth and Sports met in Algiers and attempted again to establish a quadrennial schedule. The council chose Iraq for the 1989 games, Jordan for 1993, and Tunisia for 1997. None of these games ever took place. The proposed 1989 games were awarded to Iraq while they were actively at war with Iran.
Games were scheduled to be held in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1996, but construction delays and a slow recovery from the Israeli war slowed plans, and the games were set back one year to 1997. Unfortunately, this caused a schedule conflict with the Mediterranean Games, whose council had recently voted to switch those games to the year after, as opposed to the year before, the Olympic Games.The Arab Games Federation responded by moving their next games, planned for 2001 in Amman, to 1999 to avoid the overlapping schedules. The 2003 games, planned for Algiers, were postponed to 2004 after an earthquake in 2003 delayed the plans.
Political Difficulties
Political strife has followed the Arab Games throughout their history. Internal sports federation issues kept Egypt away from the second games in Beirut. Egypt had overwhelmed the other nations at the first games.
The 1961 games in Casablanca, Morocco, opened without teams from Iraq, Algeria, or Tunisia.The Iraqis boycotted, protesting the participation of Kuwait, which Iraq at the time was claiming as a part of its territory. Algeria’s absence was due to a FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) ban of some of its football (soccer) players, who had broken their contracts with teams in France in 1958 to return to Algeria and join the Algerian National Liberation Front. FIFA threatened to ban anyone who played against the Algerians.The Algerian government kept all its athletes from the games.Tunisia was involved in a small military action involving the French, the Bizerte crisis, and said that this prevented them from sending a team to the games. Both Algeria and Tunisia sent flagbearers as signs of goodwill.
In 1985, Egypt did not participate in the games after being sanctioned by the Arab League. In 1992, when Iraq was banned from the games for its invasion of Kuwait, Iraqi athletes traveled to the Syrian border to protest. In 1997, Iraq’s participation was still an issue. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar threatened to boycott the games if Iraq took part. The Iraqis replied that even the United States had not prevented Iraqi participation in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and that they had invitations to the games from the Arab League.The Iraqi National Olympic Committee sent ninety-five Iraqi athletes to the Lebanese border, where the Lebanese authorities refused to let them cross. In 1999, Iraq was invited by Jordan to the games in Amman. Kuwait responded with a boycott of its own, claiming it would not participate with a nation that was still holding Kuwaiti prisoners of war.The president of the Kuwaiti Olympic Committee, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, resigned from the Arab Sports Federation over the Iraq issue, citing interference from the Arab League.
The 1999 games were eventful, with soccer riots both on and off the field involving players and fans from Palestine, Libya, and Iraq, with destruction and minor injuries. This was the second games in a row in which soccer events had been interrupted by violence. The lack of goodwill carried over to basketball, and the Arab Games Organizing Committee called an emergency meeting to address the issue. Seven athletes failed drug tests at the games.
The 1999 games were also known as the Al Hussein tournament, in memoriam to Jordan’s late King Hussein, who had died earlier in the year. During the games, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal Fahd, an International Olympic Committee member and president of the Arab Sports Confederation, the governing body for the games, died of a heart attack.The Saudi Arabian delegation insisted that the games not be interrupted, though the prince was remembered in a moment of silence before each event began and flags were flown at half staff for three days.The closing ceremonies for the games were subdued, organizers canceling all festivities out of respect to Prince Fahd.
A sports stadium under construction in Qatar in May 2004. Source: istockphoto/PaulCowan.
The 2004 Arab Games, held 24 September to 8 October in Algiers, Algeria, one month after the Athens Olympic Games, were very orderly in comparison with past events, with no reported boycotts or violence.
The Future
The 2007 games are scheduled to be held in Libya. If held, these would be the first major international games held in the nation.
Daniel Bell
See also Islamic Countries’ Women’s Sports Solidarity Games
Categories: Sporting Events