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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Oman participating in the 2013 Islamic Solidarity Games starting today; Omani Football team is a no-show.

The 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games starts today in Indonesia. Around 43 nations are participating including Oman. The Omani football team pulled out at the last minute with a statement the gist being they were too tired and were saving up for another football tournament (kind of disappointing). It has also been reported there was some type of dissension between the Omani Olympic Committee and the OFA (Oman Football Association). Lest we not forget FIFA put out a press release threatening to suspend the OFA last year due to their operational practices.  However, Oman has other athletes set to compete in other sports such as athletics and volleyball. Best of luck to the Omani athletes.

This is really only the 2nd competitive Islamic Solidarity Games not the 3rd as the 2nd 'Games' scheduled for 2009 in Iran was cancelled. Despite the 'Games' motto being 'harmony in unity' and the word 'solidarity' used in the official name of the games, the Iranian games never took place because of a spat between Arabs and Iranians on what to call the 'Persian Gulf' or 'Arabian Gulf' (depending on your perspective) in official 'Games' literature and logo design. Many of the countries' participants scheduled to compete in the Iranian games were from Asia or Africa not even from the Middle East.  Besides all of this lack of coming together, I hope Oman can do something and win a few in this year's Solidarity Games.

Official Website:  http://www.inaisgoc2013southsumatera.com/

 

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