Saudi Arabia’s free speech violations #78: you cannot even discuss football
Here is a wonderful video featuring Prince Sultan bin Fahad, سلطان بن فهد, the first person in a long time to get me interested in football:
A little background for those who cannot understand Arabic. Saudi Arabia’s football team lost against Oman’s in the Gulf Cup. Not every team is as great as Bahrain’s.
The video shows some post-match commentary on Saudi Arabian television. Now, personally, I think that watching a football match is a waste of my time, but watching commentary about a football match is a far worse use of my time. Most commentary is low quality, and when you consider the topic of football…
Still, in a country like Saudi Arabia, football is one of the few outlets of free debate. In this case, the commentartors began critiquing the strategy, or lack thereof, of the football team. Then they opened up the phone lines for viewers. One of the viewers was Prince Sultan bin Fahad, president of the kingdom’s Youth and Sports department, i.e. the sports minister.
You do not need to understand Arabic to understand the thoughts of the commentators by watching their facial expressions or hearing the Prince’s shouting. He ended by saying: “If you’re not well-mannered enough, then let me educate you myself”.
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