Kuwait silent in noisy sporting neighbourhood – DW – 06/19/2023

Kuwait took part in the 1982 FIFA World Cup – eight, 12 and 40 years respectively ahead of its Gulf neighbors the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar – and made quite an impression.

When France equalized 4-1 against the Asian champions, Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, head of the association and senior member of the royal family, took to the pitch in Valladolid to reproach the referee and argue that his players had stopped after a whistle from the crowd. Incredibly, the match official didn’t recognize the goal.

Those were golden days. “We were the best in Asia because the government, the football association, the clubs and the media – the entire community – had one goal and wanted high standards,” Bader Marafi, a longtime fan and archivist of Kuwaiti football, told DW . “Everyone worked together.”

More than four decades later, there is little evidence of such unity. Kuwait, who failed even to qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup, have slipped down the rankings and out of the limelight at a time when sport has never been more in the spotlight in the region.

Loud neighbors

In recent years, the spending of the oil- or gas-rich Gulf States and their sovereign wealth funds has changed the face of international sport.

United Arab Emirates-based Manchester City became English and European champions, Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup and clubs in Saudi Arabia signed some of football’s biggest names, while the country’s Private Investment Fund has become a major player in professional golf.

Kuwait, the region’s fourth-largest oil producer with about 7 percent of world reserves, was left out of both the spending and the talks.

This is despite a sovereign wealth fund valued at $769 billion, second only to the Abu Dhabi fund and larger than its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to the Sovereign Wealth Funds Data Platform. Kuwait, which also has a strong banking system and low levels of debt, has no Formula 1 Grand Prix, no major international tournaments to prepare for and no major European football clubs associated with its state.

“Kuwait is lagging behind in many areas, including sports, after it used to be proactive,” Ahmed Al-Sarraf, a prominent columnist and media personality in the country, told DW. “Furthermore, Kuwait, which is conservative in its decisions, is not known for its ambitions to be an international center in any area.”

Kuwaiti Challenges

According to Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economics at SKEMA Business School, this conservatism was not accidental but a result of the events of August 1990. “The general consensus about Kuwait is that there is a cautious and conservative approach .” caused decision-making problems due to the Iraqi invasion in the early 1990s,” he said.

After gaining independence from Britain in 1961, Kuwait was once a proactive supporter of Arab unity and has now become more inward-looking. “The country has stepped back from the limelight and is less conspicuous,” added Chadwick.

Kuwait’s relatively powerful parliament, with which governments have to deal and negotiate, can make major projects more difficult to get the green light, especially compared to governments in Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi. “The rulers of such countries have no restrictions on what and where they spend how much,” said Al-Sarraf.

“The decisions to spend billions buying sports clubs and paying hundreds of millions of dollars to athletes and football players is a complex issue,” he added. “Usually it requires the approval of Parliament, which is not always easy.”

This has also made it more difficult for the country to diversify its economy, which is about 90% dependent on oil revenues, a factor that has contributed to investment from other countries in the region.

“The people of Kuwait are not jealous of what is happening elsewhere, they are angry at the situation we are in now,” Marafi said. “Elections are held almost every year and there are always clashes between government and parliament, and football gets drawn into the political struggles.”

football at home

Government interference in the leadership of the Kuwait Football Association led to FIFA banning the country in 2015. This sentence lasted two years and did not allow Kuwait to compete in international tournaments.

“This ban affected everything,” said Radojko Avramovic, Kuwait national team coach in 2002 and again in 2018. “Not only the national team but also youth development lost all continuity and that left a big gap compared to other countries .”

Resolving this issue should be a priority rather than spending billions on international sport, Marafi believes. “Our league is very weak and the level of Kuwaiti players has dropped,” said Marafi. “There is no talent, no facilities and no good stadiums. The viewer experience is bad.”

He wants the government and federal government to work more closely together. “It’s a strange thing, a lot of people involved in Kuwaiti football attend games in Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Manchester or London and are so happy with the experience but they never think of trying the same thing here. “

Avramovic is clear what has to happen. “They have to improve the facilities, especially when it comes to promoting young talent. Many clubs only have one training ground for all their teams.” It’s different elsewhere in the region. “If you travel to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, you can see how many football pitches each club has, both indoors and outdoors.”

In Kuwait it will take time and money to get domestic football back on track. “Strategically, Kuwait now has a significant competitive disadvantage compared to its peers,” Chadwick said. “It would take huge investments to achieve any kind of parity.”

Edited by: James Thorogood