Barca and Real Madrid banners on a Kurdish neighborhood Loud parties in the middle of the night time, battles, actually stabbings - this is the world in a single northern Iraqi city, after having a fit between Spanish soccer giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. Italy is a large number of miles away, but when the groups play - as they can on Saturday - interests in Erbil run very high. Each time Real Madrid and Barcelona play, the streets clear, coffee properties complete with fans, and TELEVISION programs drop their usual development to start the build-up for the fit. A short while later, the streets fill again for the victory festivities. Supporters of the winning team tour the city in convoys of vehicles, horns blaring, teenagers hanging out of the windows. But this is not Madrid or Barcelona - it is Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Iraq is really a country with more than its fair share of religious and political fault lines, and Kurdistan - which became semi-autonomous in 2005 - also offers family rivalries and fierce political. Nevertheless when it comes to football, you will find only two camps - Real Madrid and Barcelona. This really is clear even on days the groups aren't playing. Prints of the teams adorn the streets, shops are called after them, and their jerseys are worn by people. Kurdish people do not appear to be very interested in local or Arab basketball groups, however they are crazy in regards to the Spanish giants. In a house in Ankawa, Erbil's Christian fraction, Barcelona lover Mustapha Ergushi puffs on a as he muses on the real reason for this strange attraction. "Kurdish everyone was oppressed for decades. They were not able to express their feelings, their passions," he says. "Now they are absolve to allow this energy out, that they held inside themselves those years." Barca is element of his existence, Ergushi says. "When all of us plays, we come together to view the match in coffee houses or in houses. We go out within our cars when we get. Even if it finishes at one o'clock each morning we enjoy in the streets." There are frequent clashes between Real Madrid and Barcelona supporters, also unexpected stabbings, therefore police are out in force on El Clasico days, especially in Iskan, a vibrant area famous for its coffee houses. "This place is for Real fans. Barcelona supporters are barred," says one group of young men in the smoke-filled Naight Cafe in Iskan. Goban Askeri, who works in still another coffee house in Iskan, proudly shows me his Barcelona jersey. "I can't be friends with Real Madrid fans," he says. "I have fought therefore often times for Barcelona. When Real Madrid are playing, I use this Barcelona jersey on purpose." Silvan Kerim Abdullah, director of the college of activity education at Salahaddin University, says the cause Kurds prefer teams from the far end of the Mediterranean to their own local groups is really because of the sparkle of the stars who play for them. Whether a Kurd helps Barcelona or Real Madrid is likely to be dependant on whether they like Barca's Lionel Messi or Real's Ronaldo, he claims. But Kurdish reporter and writer Abdulla Hawez states that - as in Spain, where some on the left still think about Real Madrid as Franco's group - politics and class come right into it. "Those who support Real are usually thicker people, as the poorer people are more prone to support Barca." Barcelona fans appear to be more numerous, probably since Kurdistan and Catalonia are generally areas pressing for greater autonomy. The President of the Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, popular as an advocate of Barcelona, was sent a team jacket by the club's president Sandro Rossell. Last August, a was unfurled in the stands all through an Clasico in Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium keeping the words: "Kurdistan isn't Iraq / Catalonia is not Spain." Meanwhile, Real Madrid are taking steps to attract more support among the Kurds. The Madrid group and the Erbil government signed a contract a year ago on setting up soccer academies over the area. You have already opened and three more are on the way. The competition appears set to carry on into the next generation. The Magazine can be followed by you on Twitter and on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment