Ahmed Tharwat: An event for citizens of the world citizens
In contrast to World Cup, American football invites competition on American terms.
Ahmed Tharwat
Published: July 04, 2006

Every four years, June becomes a month of magic and madness among World Cup fans. For most of the world outside the United States, football (or soccer) is the only game in town. The whole world is in the stands in cities across Germany, watching the biggest sporting event on the planet. Millions of fans all over the world are glued to their TVs watching the one-month drama unfold every day -- the biggest reality TV ever produced.

All other games are suspended. Countries declare national holidays when their team plays a World Cup game. Ghana turned electricity off and redirected it to homes so Ghanaians could watch their team play the United States. A union organizer in England even advised members on the different ways to call in sick during the games.

A football fanatic myself, I've transformed my complicated schedule to live in the world football time zone. I change meeting times, walk the dog at 6 a.m., leave phones unanswered and skip outings. I got in trouble by missing my mother-in-law's 80th birthday party to watch the games.

Watching fans of different countries, their faces painted in their national colors, sitting side by side enjoying a game is to glimpse the huge impact of this event. The World Cup extravaganza comes thundering as if it were a world war fought by 22 players armed only with the shirts on their backs, without equipment, helmets or sticks. It is a civilized sport. Players seem to exaggerate their injuries for the world to see as if to condemn violence and not to condone it.

It's a game where small countries like Togo, Tunisia or Ghana can challenge superpowers like Germany, England and the United States without fear of retaliation or invasion. The worst that could happen to them is to lose a game, and there will be always another game and another World Cup. It's a chance to compete on a playground that is just and fair, to compete on a frontier where the West does not yet dominate.

To those who favor American football, which is about following the playbook, playing accurately, focusing on specialization and dividing players into offense and defense, world football is creative, complex, multifaceted and inclusive. It is not so much about occupation of territory; it is about shifting positions, maneuvering and orchestrating a series of attacks and retreats, winning without physical elimination.

While American football has always invited people from all over the world to the American way, world football invites people from all over to be citizens of the world. It is about playing your best with the rest of the world.

We die-hard World Cup fans here in the United States live like insurgents hiding in the shadow of American ambivalence and contempt for the game: lonely and overlooked, but watching, or taping, cheering, holding our breath or cursing through every game that is played. We can identify Guagua, Al Doquie and Kaka as well as Klose and Beckham and Al Jaziri. But because we are "world" football fans, we can't bring the conversation to the water cooler, find much coverage in the local paper, or even listen to the national news for updates. Even the broadcasters carrying the games don't fathom the drama. Though I'm not a Spanish speaker, I find myself watching the Envision broadcast because here is a channel that understands the world football fan's emotion and language.

In the United States, our sport is overlooked and left out. We are looked at askance, treated like outsiders or worse. World football fans in the United States will be always be the illegal immigrants.

Published By star Tribune The Leading Twin City News Paper

Ahmed Tharwat is host of "Belahdan," an Arab-American TV show in the Twin Cities.