Winning at football in the Middle East (page 1 of 5)

Passion. It's the single most important ingredient for football greatness, and there is no doubt that all Arab nations have a passion for the sport. In this respect, at least, they rival the Brazilians and Italians. However, football clubs in the Gulf, Middle East and North Africa lack the professionalism of their international counterparts, and Arab teams perform poorly in international tournaments.

A lack of success on the playing field has translated into poor performance for the business of Arab football. Advertisers, after all, want to be associated with winners. And fat contracts are for now the reserve of the (mostly European and South American) elite.

In the 2002 World Cup, the Arab world was represented by Saudi Arabia and Tunisia; both teams finished last in their respective groups. The performance of a national team draws strength from a country's football leagues and youth clubs. But the common practice in the region is not to nurture local talent, but to import foreign coaches to produce miracles without attending to the bigger picture. This approach has produced no miracles in the Arab world.

A handful of Arab players have also been associated with European football. This includes Saudi Arabian players such as Sami Al-Jaber, who had a spell at English club Wolverhampton Wanderers and who announced his retirement from international football following the World Cup. Nawaf Al-Temyat is another Saudi star, who in the run up to the World Cup was courted by Italian clubs Parma and Brescia, as well as by Dutch side Roda JC. The 2000 Asian player of the year, Al-Temyat's career was almost ended by injury in March 2001.

To some extent, Roda pursued Al-Temyat to boost the club's profile in the Middle East. The Dutch club's technical director, Wim Vrosch, said Al-Temyat could bring many assets to his club. "We would also expect to make some money back from any deal, through marketing, TV rights and tournaments in Saudi Arabia," he said. Arab interest in European football will only grow as hometown boys begin to pop up in matches shown via satellite. For now, however, Al-Temyat remains at Al Hilal club in Saudi Arabia.

One of the most successful Arab players in European football is Ahmed ("Mido") Hossam who is signed with Holland's Ajax. Just 19, Mido is potentially a future goldmine for the club.
Despite some genuine talents and the lure of tapping into Arab viewing audiences, offers have never exactly flooded in for Arab players.

"Even when Egypt won the African championship in 2000, the offers only came from Turkey, Austria, and Belgium, not from the top leagues in Europe," says Abdel Rahim. This year is particularly bad because the bottom has fallen out of the European transfer market. Clubs have put investment on ice and pursued reductions in player salaries.

Transfers. There are also cases of Arab clubs bungling transfer opportunities, mishandling the process of negotiating transfer fees and contracting. "They have paid for their mistakes. They were not preparing professional contracts," says Abdel Rahim. So, for example, Mido left Zamalek for his first foreign club, Belgium's K.A.A. Gent, without the club getting any compensation, and another player went from the Arab Contractors team to Portugal, he says. "Arab Contractors complained to FIFA, but they only got a small sum compared to if they had handled it properly in the first place."

Ismail Osman, chairman of Ismaili club, Egyptian league champions last season, says he is looking to contact sports marketing agencies to make sure transfer opportunities are pursued and executed correctly by his club.