When a goal is scored in the Qatar Stars League, Khalil al-Balushi makes sure viewers feel the full force of the moment as he dials up the decibels to make their TV sets tremble.
“La-la-la-la-la,” he shouts after the ball hits the back of the net in one the stadiums that is to host FIFA World Cup matches.
Viewers of the Alkass sports channel might not see it, but sometimes the 42-year-old Balushi, one of Qatar’s top soccer commentators, dances a little jig in the press stand after a goal, pointing a celebratory finger toward the pitch.
Photo: AFP
Born in Oman and based in Qatar for 16 years, Balushi said that all Arab soccer commentators — inspired by their exuberant counterparts in Brazil and Argentina — “are a little bit noisy.”
In the Qatari heat, he tips back a bottle of water at halftime and a technician makes sure he has a constant flow of tissues to wipe his brow.
In a country where multimillion dollar imports such as Colombia’s James Rodriguez and French World Cup winner Steven Nzonzi played this year before just a few hundred people, Balushi brings much-needed life to Qatar’s subdued soccer culture.
“Everyone knows me as this person, Khalil, with very high noise,” he said. “I will be at the same level for the World Cup.”
Qatari soccer is likely to be different after the final on Dec. 18, Balushi and others say — not least because of the US$6.5 billion spent on building and refurbishing the tournament’s eight stadiums.
Foreign oil workers brought soccer to Qatar in the 1940s, and some of the pitch lines were even drawn with oil.
The national team played its first game in 1970, and Qatar reached the final of the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1981.
After shocking many in 2010 by securing this year’s World Cup finals, the tiny Gulf state won the AFC Asian Cup in 2019.
Since the 1990s, members of the royal family started pumping some of Qatar’s natural gas riches into local clubs.
“The quality of the players that they are bringing to the league is better,” Balushi said. “It is also helping to bring more fans to the stadiums.”
However, “there is still a lot of difference in the football culture here and in Europe,” he said.
Clubs al-Duhail and al-Sadd have dominated the Qatar Stars League, winning 11 of the past 12 titles.
Migrant laborers outnumber Qataris in many stadiums. At the home grounds of club al-Gharafa, a small army of Algerian workers cheers on a team that boasts several players from the North African country, including top international Yacine Brahimi.
Deterred by the Gulf state’s often searing temperatures, wealthy Qataris prefer to follow the matches from their luxurious homes.
To get more spectators into stadiums, Qatar needs a more competitive league, former national player Mohamed Mubarak al-Mohannadi said.
With Qatari national players away preparing for the World Cup, al-Sadd and al-Duhail have stumbled, creating greater competition and bringing more people to matches.
“If my team can come close to a top place, I would ... take my family to support them,” Mohannadi said. “If they are losing, no one wants to go to the stadium.”
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
Olympic bronze medalist Lee Meng-yuan has become the first Taiwanese athlete to top the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) men’s skeet world rankings, while top Taiwanese shooters won golds in each of yesterday’s finals in Taoyuan. Lee’s 6,610 points put him ahead of fellow men’s skeet medalists from the Paris Olympics Americans Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince. Lee on Monday said that he was surprised by the result, although he had expected his ranking to rise after the Games, which was also the first time a Taiwanese athlete had competed in men’s skeet. Despite topping the rankings, Lee said he believed Hancock, who