By Matt Scott
February 24 – Kuwait’s opportunity for rapprochement with the global football community could be more limited than it seemed at first sight if the man who replaces the controversial former sports minister turns out not to be committed to reform – and the signs are not good.
Khaled Al Roudan MP replaced Sheikh Salman Humoud Al-Sabah as sports minister earlier this month after the latter resigned two days ahead of a vote of no confidence that had been planned over his record. However, few in the football community believe Al Roudan is capable of being a reformist who will break with the central government’s line on sport.
Al Roudan was a member of the Public Authority of Sports and voted in favour of the controversial sports law that precipitated his nation’s suspension from FIFA and the International Olympic Committee. Despite the sanctions against the Kuwait Football Association and its national Olympic committee, Al Roudan has announced they will both continue under the status quo.
Without international oversight, football in Kuwait has descended into disarray in recent months, with videos appearing on social media of fighting between players and coaches after games – even including the showpiece Emir Cup final on Wednesday – apparently over allegations of dubious refereeing. Back in December, Al-Arabi threatened to withdraw from the Kuwait Premier League over a dispute with the disciplinary committee over an opposition club fielding a suspended player.
“We are convinced that honourable people in Kuwait’s sports scene have become fewer and therefore we officially announce [we are] withdrawing from the League,” Al-Arabi’s vice-president Abdulaziz Ashour was quoted as saying in the Kuwait Times. At the time the Nottingham Forest owner, Fawaz Al-Hasawi, was president of the KFA and was personally criticised by Ashour. Shortly afterwards he resigned; Al-Arabi have subsequently fulfilled league fixtures.
The Ministry of the Interior has also become involved in football affairs with an official threat to Egyptians, one of the largest ex-pat communities in Kuwait, that they would face deportation if they took to the streets to celebrate their nation’s win over Burkina Faso in the African Cup of Nations semi-final earlier this month.
The Kuwait Football Association and its constituent clubs will need some persuading of Al Roudan’s intentions after he attended the FIFA Congress in Mexico in May 2016 as a member of a Kuwait-government-led delegation. He used that visit to attempt to lobby in favour of Kuwait’s reinstatement to FIFA, however, the conversations he held with delegates while there were directly contradicted in a statement issued by the KFA.
“The KFA has noted that some individuals from outside the football family have been speaking and sending phone messages… to FIFA members, claiming to represent Kuwait’s delegation and football family,” said the KFA in a statement at the time. “These individuals do not have the authority to do so and the KFA is not responsible for, and does not support, their behaviour or views.”
The KFA’s announcement was echoed by Hasan Abu Al-Hasan, the secretary general of a leading team in Kuwait, Qadsia Sporting Club, which called on the government to repeal the offending statute. “We hope the law will be amended in accordance with the FIFA Statutes so that the KFA can be reinstated in the FIFA family,” said Al-Hasan. That did not happen under Al-Sabah – the question is whether hopes that Al Roudan might do so are misplaced.
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