The press coverage of Iraq’s surprise victory in the Asian Cup final was — as Ernst Bloch might have put it — full of utopian sentiment. The win was, admittedly, a remarkable achievement, but one that hardly accounted for the sheer exuberance of the outpoured emotion that followed. Some other factor was at play here, of that one could be fairly certain — but what?
Unfortunately, the Western journalists covering the event leapt to the most obvious answer, and thereby repeated the fundamental error with which the ongoing débâcle of modern Iraq began. Could it be, it was everywhere reported, that this victorious team, in all of its ethnic diversity, will act as the prototype for a future Iraq? Rather than simply being a welcome, albeit meaningless, diversion from the brutality of day-to-day existence in Baghdad, Basra or Kirkuk, could this victory in fact bear the seeds of a democratic Iraq-to-come?
In other words, the euphoria generated by Iraq’s victory was immediately interpreted as an expression of latent democratic enthusiasm, a defiant embracing of life and culture over against the sadistic designs of terrorists and other religious extremists. This interpretation was given additional weight by the accompanying footage of celebrations on the streets of Baghdad that were eerily similar to those images of popular jubilation following the overthrow of Saddam in April 2003.
The message of this reporting is obvious, if naive. Left to themselves, free from the interference of jihadists and dictators, the Iraqi people will spontaneously form benevolent collectives, much like a football team. This is just another version of the deluded belief — one of the core beliefs that motivated the United States’ war effort in the first place — that the people would adopt recognisably democratic forms of social life, once released from Saddam’s oppressive régime.
But as the scenes of celebration shifted from those of middle-aged Iraqi men dancing outside their favourite coffee houses, to the more familiar images of gun-toting thugs and hoodlums with flags proudly draped over their young shoulders, it was hard not to feel that this win represented for the Iraqis something different altogether. It was a display of Iraqi pride that was somehow consonant with the violence that continues to brutalise the nation.
And so, while the media waxed lyrical over this hope-filled example of Iraqi fraternity, what was missed was the sickening connection between war and sport in the cultural politics