Trembling Hands Build Nothing!
No one is unaware of the state of our country a near-total collapse in every sector of life: recurrent electricity outages, a deeply rooted crisis that successive governments have failed to solve and the reason is corruption.
A healthcare system completely collapsed, hospitals lacking even the simplest supplies, cancer and kidney failure patients and others with chronic illnesses suffering the absence of medicine and care and the reason is corruption.
A decayed educational infrastructure, collapsing schools, nonexistent learning tools, unqualified teachers, and corruption in printing textbooks not to mention exam fraud and the reason always is corruption.
Corruption and the corrupt have seized every aspect of our lives, leaving no space unpolluted even sports.
Even football the people’s passion has been stolen by trembling hands, losing its shine and competitiveness, turning into a dirty game reflecting the filth of those running it repulsive as their behavior and cowardice.
Trembling hands do not build hands shaking from weakness, frailty, and fear cannot hold responsibility
so why do their owners advance?
Why do they dominate the scene, speak the loudest, and enjoy the widest chances?
Why do they assume positions where decisive action is required, while the competent hide in fear or are forced to do so?
Talking about corruption in sports especially football in Libya is nothing new;
what is new is the audacity of trembling officials issuing decisions, applying regulations and sanctions according to their whims, then suspending them whenever their interests are threatened.
My motivation for writing these lines is the drama of the “Championship Hexagonal” in Milan specifically the match between Ahli Tripoli and Ahli Benghazi, and the controversy over VAR technology.
Less than 48 hours after the match ended, the Football Federation “brave” issued decisive rulings:
banning a player and coach from Ahli Benghazi, imposing financial fines, and recording a (2–0) loss against the team.
Procedurally correct decisions nothing wrong with them but the shock was in the Federation’s daring to apply them here,
while it refused to apply them in the Tripoli derby between Ahli and Ittihad a match that witnessed dramatic and even criminal incidents, like burning the team bus seen by everyone except the Football Federation, its competitions committee, and the match observer!
The trembling Federation and its committee failed to apply the law, delaying any decision until the match’s result became meaningless then decided to cancel it under the pretext of preserving “civil peace and social fabric”!
We say then: if the Federation is concerned about civil peace, why did it not apply this justification in the Ahli derby? Why enforce the law in Italy and ignore it in Libya?
The trembling hands of football officials are not exclusive to this Federation
previous ones were hostage to influential club presidents stretching the Premier League to 36 teams in a country whose infrastructure cannot sustain a league of 16 teams!
Even stranger the First Division reached 134 teams!
Why?
To guarantee club votes in Federation elections ironically, the elections only happened after the previous president was forced to resign he drowned us in corruption, then did not reap its rewards!
A reader fanatic for his club may think this article targets a specific team (like Ahli Tripoli)
but in reality we target the trembling cowards ruling football.Their presence prevents any progress for our football internationally or continentally they may grant your club a local title, but internationally we will keep spinning in a void because progress requires building, and trembling hands do not build.
Over the past years, we witnessed repeated examples of corruption in football with complete incapacity from authorities overseeing the sport.
We saw military and civilian figures chairing clubs funded by state money without oversight.
We saw people occupying administrative and sporting positions in multiple clubs competing in the same league even the same group trampling the principle of fair competition.
We saw punishments and regulations applied against weak clubs and protection granted to strong ones under flimsy excuses.
Remember a previous season when Ittihad and other clubs withdrew in the first week of the league in protest of state support for certain teams the Libyan Football Federation then strictly applied sanctions (declaring withdrawing teams losers and deducting points).
But when Ittihad later withdrew against Ahli Tripoli in the Hexagonal, protesting refereeing followed by Ahli Benghazi the trembling federation president invented a devilish trick to avoid applying severe sanctions on Ittihad claiming “this is not withdrawal, this is refusal to play”!
Thus, the punishment that would have relegated Ittihad to the First Division evaporated and had a small club done it, it would have been relegated without hesitation.
These examples have been repeated and will continue as long as trembling hands grip the reins.
With them, our stadiums will turn from arenas of fair competition to mirrors reflecting our collapse for the trembling hands managing football with their cowardice, corruption, and dependency are the same hands choking education, healthcare, electricity, and everything else.
We cannot separate the tragedy of sports from the tragedy of the nation so what value is there in applying regulations in Milan while legislating chaos in Tripoli and Benghazi?
We remain far behind advanced footballing nations and to catch up even with our neighbors we must begin by building real football on the principle of fair competition,laws applied to everyone and that will not begin except by hands unshaken before corruption,a will unbroken by threats,and determination unshackled by political influence.
As for trembling hands they will build nothing simply because they cannot build.