The Game is For All of Us

The Game is For All of Us by James Pearson

 

Webster’s Dictionary defines culture as the beliefs, customs, and arts of a particular society, group, place, or time. A major part of culture is the participation in athletic activities. Every society and culture has had its own unique sports and athletic competitions. The Arab world is no different. For thousands of years the Arabian Peninsula has enjoyed traditional sports such as horse and camel racing, falconry, and hunting with hounds (“Sports and Recreation”). Now with modern Arabia thriving, its people now enjoy a vast array of modern and traditional sports that take place in modern facilities. More traditional sports like horseracing still remain very popular in Saudi Arabia but the most popular modern sport is soccer. “ Saudis of all ages have taken the game to heart, from children scrimmaging on playgrounds to international matches battled out in spectacular modern stadiums”(“Sports and Recreation”). The national team of Saudi Arabia has appeared in four World Cups and has won the AFC Asian Cup 3 times.  Its home stadium is the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, which holds about 67,000 spectators.  Soccer in Saudi Arabia is alive and well and will continue to thrive in the coming years.

            Across the globe people will prep this summer for one of the biggest sporting events. The World Cup will take place this summer in Brazil and the world will watch, as the beautiful game will take place on its biggest stage. Every continent has had the honor of hosting the World Cup. In 2022 the World Cup will come to Qatar, the first Arab country to host the tournament, which beat out other nations such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the Untied States. Some controversy has arisen over the decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar. The first of which is the climate. The World Cup has always taken place during the summer, which is the offseason for most major leagues across the world.  The problem is that the average summer temperature in Qatar is around 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which causes immediate concern for the safety of the players and spectators. The bid chairmen Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Than responded by saying the answer will heavily rely on the technology of temperature controlled stadiums. There have been talks of moving the tournament to the winter months but that has been met with harsh opposition from the international soccer community. With the natural climate in opposition to the proposed World Cup in Qatar, allegations of bribery have arisen toward two members of the executive committee in charge of selecting the location for the 2022 World Cup. Whether these allegations are true, as a fan of the game, I look forward to seeing the Arab world shine on the world’s biggest stage when its time comes.

            The reason why I chose to write about sports and soccer more specifically is because I have played soccer ever since I was young and has been a very important part of my life ever since. To me, and like many others, soccer is way more than a game. Soccer can transcend the boundaries that would ultimately separate individuals and bring them together if only for a short while. In my experiences playing soccer I have been fortunate to play with people from all over the world and the languages may be different but the game does not change. That is why soccer is called the beautiful game; the ball doesn’t see race or religion. For a brief time, there are just players playing a game and that’s it.  “Across every continent, now more than ever, football is a common language and a culture shared: joy, passion, knowing what it is to be in a team; an escape, an inspiration, an affirmation of identity”(Watt 7).  Now in modern times, there is more focus on what makes us different from each other. But there are more things than we realize that bring us together.

Works Cited

"Sports And Recreation." Sports And Recreation. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Watt, Tom. A Beautiful Game. New York: Abrams, 2009. Print.