http://erisportsnews.com/2012/12/12/opinion-perspective-defections-of-the-eritrean-soccer-team/
Opinion & Perspective: Defections of the Eritrean soccer team.
For the past week and half, Erisportsnews.com a new blog website with more
space and features than its sister blog Eri-international sports previously
attempted to cover and analyze the CECAFA senior challenge cup taking place
in Uganda by following the event and the Eritrean national team. Then “Paw”
like a left punch unexpectedly the news headlines read that many players on
Eritrea’s national team have left their hotels and are nowhere to be found.
What I am about to do is trying to fairly give a perspective from an
athletics state of mind. In order to understand the Eritrean national
soccer team one must do its research and learn about its long history. It
existed way before many African countries even knew the name of the sport
and in some cases many other countries throughout the world. The game was
introduced to Eritrea by the Italians not too far away from the time when
the sport was first introduced in England. So why is Eritrea still lagging
behind? This is a question that I have been trying to answer to my friends
lately. I decided to do some research and because I was also presenting a
paper at a University on the challenges of Eritrean sports, it worked out
well.
The fact remains that Eritrea has had a great tradition in the past, as
many of its players were forced to play with and for occupiers during the
heyday of the game in the country. However because the only thing that
allowed many of the great players of past some sense of accomplishment and
pride was to be on the field and play very competitive soccer, it was a way
to forget the problems of the country under occupation. Many soccer stars
have even gone on to fight for the independence of the country and continue
to this day to serve their country in different capacities. What makes the
current generation so different? Well I am neither a federation official
nor a person who reads minds but I can tell you one thing, there is a total
disrespect of the Flag for which so many gave their lives for. While I will
not go on accusing every player who defects I am a strong believer that
their motivation was based on lies and hate from organizations who want to
see ERITREA fail. Eritrea will not succumb to their ideals not today or
ever. By luring innocent minds to leave a national team they are depriving
them of the opportunity to represent the highest compliment ANY ATHLETE, I
repeat ANY ATHLETE, can ever have as a human being. These young people
will suffer a lot because the fact remains that most of the soccer players
from Eritrea that have defected and were easily accepted into the USA are
not better off than when they were playing for the Eritrean national team.
They may be working and helping their families and that may be totally
acceptable but they could have done wonders if they truly relied on their
abilities to play the game at higher levels. Other than the ERSFNA
(Eritrean Sports Federation in North America)yearly events I still have yet
to see players who have defected playing at the college or professional
levels.
I have had an opportunity to meet some of these players who defected and
without going into details they have all told me that they regret what they
have done but they really thought the Grass was greener on the other side,
not truly passionately realizing that the GRASS IS TRULY GREENER on the
Soccer field. They were not only abandoning their country but the game
itself as life has give them a hard lesson.Look at our cyclists not a
single defection, why? because they truly love their sport. The same goes
for our runners with the exception of 1 or 2. Of-course when Human Rights
Watch’s director for Africa is an Ethiopian who has never been to the new
Eritrea becomes an analyst about Eritrea’s athletes, one can only suspect
that the network of human traffickers including some prominent figures are
eager to see these athletes leave their respective teams. Many of the other
Eritrean athletes who have defected in the past have even spoken about the
offers they have gotten to voluntarily abandon the allegiance to the
country, however Eritrea is not as others make it out to be because ERITREA
never abandons Eritreans as long as they still have feelings for their
country. So for all those who want to use the soccer defections as a
political game, you might want to hold on for a second. To quote the great
political strategist James Carville “It is the economy stupid”! The players
have decided that they may be better off with the offer to come to the USA
in exchange for negative headlines on news papers and media outlets and
others cashing in on the offer. Oh! by the way they will say that Eritrea
has a repressive regime BLAH! BLAH! to get their papers when they are
making more money than the President of the country himself who is too busy
building a nation from scratch while these guys were being paid to play
soccer. Sorry somebody had to say something.
The one other point I would like to make is often, people defect due to
perceived danger or oppression in their home country, while other types of
people are more common, athletes are known to defect too, such as when the
entire Ethiopian men’s soccer team took off while at a tournament in 1997
when the very same brutal regime who has its hands in funding activities to
get Eritreans to defect by providing funds to organizations created in the
name of human rights.The fact remains that despite the news headlines and
their big lies about Eritrea, these players were privileged and were exempt
from national service because of the more important task they were given to
represent their nation at the highest level.Meanwhile I do hope that just
like the cycling and running programs in Eritrea, the national soccer team
will get better. Why not allow a couple of our Eritrean international stars
play for the national team alongside players from the smaller rural towns
and cities who will take the sport a lot more seriously, therefore making
it difficult for the city slickers and the spoiled young men of Asmara to
make the team. Just a suggestion! Eritrea will prevail and it will go on
with or without these soccer players. For more on this important discussion
please listen to an interview that was conducted with KFAI-FM radio from
Minneapolis, Minnesota by clicking on the website and link to the Eritrean
community radio page. The program was conducted this past Sunday December
9th, 2012 and starts at about the thirty minute mark. I would like to thank
Issey Asbu for doing an outstanding job while having to face so much
challenge to maintain the radio program. The link is as follows.
For (direct click)
http://kfai.org/node/32906
If you want to listen to the Eritrean community radio in its entirety then
click on
http://kfai.org/eritreancommunityradio and click on recent
playlists for December 9th, 2012.Thank you and I hope to see some comments
on the comment page of the blog. Meanwhile to those haters. Eritrea will
always Prevail despite your hatred and I am not in the business of
responding to childish comments. Please grow up and ask what you can do for
Eritrea, instead of your outlandish statements.
Mike Seium
For more interesting sports analysis and news just click on
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Received on Wed Dec 12 2012 - 10:26:37 EST
