Commentary in Arabic ... or in Tigrinya? Football fans and the search for free television broadcasting

Abstract

Without a doubt football is the male leisure activity par excellence in the Arab world. Boys play it, young men often watch it – or rather try to watch it, because viewing matches on television sometimes proves quite a challenge. Whereas domestic leagues were the main attraction until the 1990s in many Arab countries, European matches and international competitions have gradually grown in popularity. Interest in the big Arab clubs – including the most renowned, Al Ahly and Zamalek in Cairo, Espérance Sportive in Tunis and Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie in Algeria – has waned somewhat, although it still survives in some groups of ‘ultras’ inspired by the European ‘hooligans’ of the 1980s. With the liberalisation of the Arab satellite space in the first decade of the twenty-first century and the emergence of a number of paid TV channels, the majority of viewers in Arab countries lost access to their favourite football leagues, particularly those in Spain, England and Italy. In the competition for broadcasting rights for major events, free national channels lost out to pan-Arab channels, primarily Al Jazeera Sport and the Saudi private capital consortia MBC and ART. This liberalisation of media space tipped the balance of sources of information and televised entertainment in favour of the Gulf countries and introduced fierce competition between channels.