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Al-Ansar and Al-Najmah’s match against the 1997 Super Cup, which was presented by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation as part of a series of important matches shown successively in the evening, taking us back to the beautiful days on the field soccer. It also leaves images that reflect the magnificence of those days, which are nothing like today, on the fields of the first popular game in Lebanon.
Everything was different, even if Lebanese football that year had not achieved achievements in the form of those achieved by clubs and teams in recent years. Everything was different, leaving room for an approach or comparison between the beautiful past and the painful present.
The Bourj Hammoud Stadium was the venue for the event, and returning to it on screen after it was out of service in recent years creates a certain “nostalgia” for everyone who watched the matches from their stands. The same goes for those who watched those matches on screen with the voice of his colleague Fadi Zain (Lebanon’s ambassador to Guinea), who was the most prominent face commenting on the matches for a long time.
In a contact with Al-Akhbar, Al-Zein says: “If we go back to 1997, we find that the material sponsorship was higher than the current time, with club presidents like Omar Ghandour in Al-Nijmeh, Salim Diab in Al-Ansar , Antoine Choueiri in Al-Hikma, and the Assaf family in Al-Safa and other followers. “For the teams, and therefore, the level went up the most in terms of the quality of the foreign players that were brought to Lebanon, and with their presence, the level of the local player increased through contact with them.”
There is talk of matches that started weeks ago and did not end shortly after the final whistle
But frankly, the stadium was not important or the final result of the match, not even the beautiful goal of the Nigerian Ansar player, Idris Haruna, with which he gave the title to the Green Team winning 1-0, but the important thing is the feeling of that soccer was alive to the fullest 3 years before reaching the peak of its rebirth. In the modern era, with the Lebanese organization of the AFC Asian Cup, which created a modern football infrastructure and improved the condition of many stadiums across the country.
In fact, before the year 2000, the terrain of the municipality stadium in Bourj Hammoud was good and much better than what we witnessed at least in the last ten years, when the stadium became anything but a field suitable for playing football. . Let’s forget that classic sandy area that stretched in front of the two goals guarded by Syrian Maher Bayraktar on Nejmeh’s side, and the late Wissam Kanj on Ansar’s side. That stain has always been a companion to the green grass of this stadium, but the grass itself, with its good color, reflects a scenario in which nostalgia seems great today with our worn out stadiums, one after another, or some of these stadiums they have been transformed into military barracks or party centers that have distorted them or into parking lots at times!
Everything was more beautiful when looking at the form of the two teams, since far from the appearance of the young man who was coming strong at that time, Malik Hassoun with an oversized shirt, where the sleeves covered a large part of his arms, “Al Akhdar “and” Al Nabithi “wore clothes with an international brand that is the best ever. An image that reflects the interest that prevailed at the time, as well as the luxury that the clubs knew to some extent, and that was the result of the interest of the private sector in football.
Interest was evident through the name of the competition (Spring Milk Cup), which was sold by the Lebanese Football Association, as well as through advertisements broadcast by the stadium to recognized institutions in the commercial, banking, and public sectors. media and others. Today the panorama is completely different, since until recently, the sponsors were absent from the stadium panels, which of course is related to the general economic situation of the country, and to the deterioration of the playing conditions in recent years. 15 years due to the security events that have plagued the country, and due to the decline in the level of the game technically and the appearance of a large number of matches. Teams cannot evolve.
Everything was different until the security forces stood in front of the fans of the two teams to watch the fans. You feel that there is seriousness in dealing with securing matches, through the number of personnel in charge of maintaining security that looks more beautiful in stadiums than on the streets and highways where you are suffering what you are currently suffering, and who carry the weight of the responsibility of the nation reeling under the blows of successive crises.
And from the stands, muwashahat and chants echoed through the streets around the stadium. Those bleachers, painted and new, even if they were empty of seats, that were blown out of their places in many stadiums due to unwarranted public outbursts at times, and somewhere reflected sensitivity, street tension and political disputes, especially after 2005. .
The aforementioned Al-Ansar and Najma party was lost to many stars, such as the Al-Ansar trio: Jamal Taha, Muhammad Maslamani and Abdel Fattah Shehab, as well as the “bulldozer” of star forward Wael Nazha. But despite that, he was attractive, and his pace seemed much faster than it is today, so it is no secret that the quality of the players was much better and those who were in the First Division deserved to play at the highest level. level. Many names recall the beautiful era, where the hero of Lebanon included, for example, but was not limited to: Bilal Zaghloul, Munir Hussein, Kevork Kara Betyan, Khader Berjawi, Ahmed El Saksouk, Salim Hamza, Fadi Ayyad and others mentioned above. As for the hero of Lebanon in that year, there were the Iraqis Ali Kadhim, Jamal al-Hajj and Musa Hajij, who entered in replacement of the latter, and Hamza Nasser, Muhammad Abu Aliwa, Muhammad Safa, Raed Abu al-Nasr and others. of those names that were printed at the end of the nineties with their own character …
Of course, everyone who set foot on the pitch was a star at the time, as even the referees acted according to this rule (the match was managed by Osama al-Shami), which was reflected in the public interest for the matches talked about that started weeks ago and did not end shortly after the final whistle.
Nowadays, successive federations or clubs cannot be blamed exclusively for what happened in football compared to the 1997 scenario that was taken as a sample; rather, the accumulation of problems, the general neglect of them and the indifference from officials to sports in general, all of this generated a basket of special technical, financial and marketing crises. In the game, and getting out of it has become very difficult nowadays due to difficulties associated with priorities in the country beset by countless problems.
The 1997 Super Cup brought back nostalgia for the past, and perhaps left a kind of despair for the present, but the hope for a better future remains in a game that has suffered what it has suffered over the years, but refused to surrender to the flame of passion that does not go out among its fans and players in all cities, regions and stadiums. Lebanese.
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