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.”
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