Article

National showdown

Jordanian football’s biggest rivals get ready for another face-off
Issue: Dec, 2009
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After speculations that Jordanian football’s biggest match would be postponed until early 2010, since it would have contradicted with a training camp for the national football team preparing to face Thailand (see side), it looks like the second Faisali-Wehdat showdown of the year will take place as scheduled. “With all the excitement and intense level of play that the game usually features, it will be a great preparation spot for the national team players on both sides,” said Mohannad Mahadeen, the managing director of the national team and former Faisali defender, who has seen his share of intense matchups between the rivals. 

Sadly, it’s no secret that a Faisali-Wehdat game is hardly ever about football. As we mentioned in our “Top 10 Arab Sports Rivalries” (see NOX 16), the game between the team that represents the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan and the other representing the “primacy” of Jordanians has come to embody the schism in the country. From skirmishes between players during and after games, appalling chants in the stands and the occasional fist fight in the VIP section between club officials, the story is rarely the game on the field. Last year, the final game of the season between the two teams was held without a crowd; not a result of a previous incident or a league-issued punishment, but solely a decision made out of fear. And even with such intense precautions, a fight still broke out after the match. 
 
A football game should not put a whole country on high alert, especially since both teams are struggling with managerial changes and players defecting to other countries. Another incident in this upcoming matchup will once again raise the voices calling for the dissolution of both clubs and allocating their players to teams like Shabab al-Ordon and al-Jazeera. If Faisali and Wehdat have the smallest inkling of survival, they best keep this game about below-average football.