Naturalization in Sport

"Andrés Sebastián Soria Quintana, is a naturalized Qatari footballer who plays as a striker for Lekhwiya" This is the brief introduction of Soria's profile on most websites. Sounds weird? Sebastian = a Qatari name? Well, no, he is a naturalized footballer who now plays regularly for most of Qatar's national team matches and is also extremely popular at club level football. Turns out, that he is not the only one. At a football match that I recently attended in Doha, I noticed that many players had Christian names and did not look Arab as well. As a student of sociology, I found this particularly interesting since one would expect to see the best local players on the national team. So how did this major change happen? and Why?

 

Qatar's National Football team

Club football has contributed a lot to the exchange of players globally. Today, most major clubs world over have international players coming across the border to play for them. The major reasons for this of course are the financial benefits that they may receive and also, the feeling of being associated with a top of the league club. Globalization has had a huge impact on the sports arena. Players, professionals, staff, money and brands have all been and continue to be exchanged across borders at high levels. Football , or Soccer, has always been the number one sport in terms of fan following, television rating points and investments. As an effect of globalization, several players moved to different parts of the world where their talent could be harnessed and they had better opportunities to make money and develop professionally.

The idea of capitalism is of course at the heart of all this change. Club football is probably one of the highest revenue generating form of sport today. Corporations spend millions of dollars on advertising and communication so that their brand gets noticed by the majority. Most major companies like McDonalds and Coca Cola are official sponsors of world class events such as the Olympics, FIFA World Cup etc. This gives them huge exposure which of course any major corporation would love to have. Corporations are known for their extensive support when it comes to subcultures and hence, sport is a major area of interest for all the big brands in the industry today.


                   
                                   The usual sponsors at most events

The process of naturalization is not really new but its just that there is a lot of focus on it today since many countries are practicing it. Several countries today have naturalized players representing various national teams. In Qatar, most sports have naturalized citizens playing for them. In football, table-tennis, basketball, swimming etc. there are several players who are not originally from Qatar. While many players are born in Qatar and perhaps have lived in Qatar all their lives, they wouldn't have been granted citizenship under normal conditions. But, when it comes to sport, this exception seems to be made easily. In class this week, we discussed about variance. It is important to note here that variance can go in both directions. It doesn't necessarily have to be deviant. The idea of naturalized sports persons can also be seen as a form of variance. The team demographics in general isn't deviant in any respect, but there is a level of difference that seems significant. For instance, at the beginning of the national anthem in the Qatar-Japan game, there were hardly any Qatari players who were singing the anthem. The reason being that they probably didn't know them in the first place.


                                           
           The band ready for the anthems

But this is an accepted culture in the world today. The idea of dominant culture is key here. In this case, the dominant culture is the culture of FIFA, that sets the rules and regulations for international football. Players too seem to make the shift without any major issues since ultimately they benefit the most. We discussed the idea of tribalization and de-tribalization in class last week. Given the huge financial incentives, many players don't mind de-tribalizing from their original communities and seek citizenship in other countries.

Still, for varying political reasons, FIFA has deliberately kept eligibility rules rather vague. Its Article 18 reads in full:
1. Any player who is a naturalized citizen of a country in virtue of that country’s laws shall be eligible to play for a national or representative team of that country.

This culture has been introduced and to some extent supported by FIFA and so the other countries just try to adapt and thereby take advantage of the dominant culture and make it look like they are merely adhering to the broader culture. Communication needs to be clear and definite.  Statements such as these need to be more specific and clear. As per this statement, any country could grant citizenship for a period of time and have a particular player represent their country. The homology of FIFA has begun to take a different direction though. Recently, they have introduced strict regulations on the naturalization process. For instance, a player must play at least five years of club football in the country before he/she can represent the country. Qatar has done a great job with following the rules and developing a strategy. Players like Sebastian Soria and others have been around in Qatar for years and they played for Qatar only after clearing the eligibility requirements. The Qatari crowd today loves Sebastian and he is still a key performer in most matches for Qatar. The video below shows how the country embraces Sebastian as their player. Notice the commentator's support too!

                              

While FIFA has set several regulations for this, there are other sports that continue to naturalize players for a short duration. This perhaps need to be re-thought and is in fact a complex debate since it deals with several socio-political domains such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, diplomacy, culture, belief and values. The global sporting arena would be interesting to look at in the coming years.

Souq Waqif - The Kebabization Experience

As a CDA for the dorms on campus I am required to program events each month that engage the residents with the local culture. Last weekend I took the residents on my floor to Souq Waqif for a program titled “Kebabization”. Initially, I intended this program title to be a pun on the various terms in academia that are created with the “ization” standard. However, visiting Souq Waqif was a different experience this time around because I actually had those terms (that I used to come up with “kebabization”) at the back of my head. This allowed me to look at this experience from a relatively new lens.

Souq Waqif, with its fascinating streets filled with budging tourists and locals was as lively as ever. The bus dropped us off in front of a falcon shop. The falcons in the shop were pretty expensive but the falcon shop and other similar “performances” of the local culture reminded me of Cole’s notion of performance in “Bedouiness”. I regard this as a performance, as this is similar to the attempts for the “revival of tradition” in Petra and part of the quest for “authentic” presentation of the local culture. These performances are visible all over Souq Waqif in forms of the many Arab restaurants whose hosts are dressed up in elegant traditional dresses, allowing the visitor to “buy hospitality” as suggested by Cole in the same article.

I have always noticed a particular group of elderly men with carts around Souq Waqif. This time around I found out that they are called the “Hamali”. In sociological terms I would regard this group as a subculture. This is because this group shares unique instruments (their carts), uniforms and space. This aspect helps them stand out in the crowd at Souq Waqif. I have not seen them anywhere else in Doha so far.

Walking around Souq Waqif and noticing global brands like Baskin & Robins present along with the Shujja Iranian Kebab place that we visited hints towards glocalization to an extent. Souq Waqif, as previously mentioned is an attempt to revive Qatari tradition. Cole also describes this as the change from “the Bedouin into wealthy entrepreneurs of international tourism”. This is a confluence of various sociological and modern communications phenomenon presenting a very interesting situation. The architecture of Souq Waqif has always fascinated me. It reminds me of the Prince of Persia games that I played during my childhood. This time, however, with the set of academic inventory with me I observed a certain bricolage in Souq Waqif’s architecture. This is a consequence of the fusion of the modern with the traditional. The traditional, however, in this case is the general Arab tradition because many critics regard the Qatari culture as still in the process of development. The modern, for one, in Souq Waqif’s architecture can be seen in the form of beautiful lighting across the traditional alleyways.

Souq Waqif at first may seem chaotic as any marketplace because there is a lot happening at a point in time. A closer look enabled me to apply the concept of homology, which helped me consider the myriad of micro organisations in the large marketplace. One such organisation is the act of trade. Almost every entity at Souq Waqif engages in some kind of trade; whether you are the buyer or the seller or just a simple visitor, you are definitely taking or giving something either in terms of material and non-material culture.

In conclusion, it can be said that a place like Souq Waqif helps us experience the modern and the traditional in one place. It is a highly recommended place for first time visitors and a definite recommendation for locals who want to relive what Arab culture is all about.