Changes in sport & leisure activities
My Interview to Mr. Hassan Alansari ( Father )
I interviewed my father and asked him a few
questions about the difference between sports in the present and the past in
the UAE. My first question was “what sports were famous and known in your day,
dad?” My father replied”my dear son…well… you can’t say there was a sport is
more popular than other sports. There were a lot of activities that were
derived from people’s passion. They were more like hobbies rather than sports in
the new definition of sports.” My father explained that people did activities
they were more into. For example, people who were much into the sea, went
fishing, rowing and diving whereas people who liked hunting did falconry.
Others who were interested in animals went horse riding and camel racing. All
those sports were traditional and everybody practiced them because they
represented the Emirati culture.
About football, he said that it was
everybody’s hobby. People played football in neighborhoods, schools, parks and
even on the beach. It was loved as much as it is loved by
young people these days. However, people only played football as a means of
entertainment and gathering, but the concept of professionalism was not known in
our fathers, and grandfathers’ time.
When asked about new sports, he said
that there are many sports that people do nowadays and never existed in his
time. Such sports are table tennis, sky diving and jujitsu. Then he got back
to talk about football to express his opinion about football today saying that it
is more like fame and business. It is now more developed and has dramatically
changed from football he played. The audience was maximum 1000 people and
winners received simple shields and medals. Now, players are paid incredible
amounts of money and their prizes are incomparable too. Moreover, players play
football as a career and they are paid to play. Professionalism that was
introduced to the game seven years ago has dramatically shifted the game into a
different level. He said that they never imagined they would witness this in
that short period of time.
Then I asked him about his
expectation of the future of this sport. He said that it is difficult to foresee
how football may look like in the future because he was not able to anticipate
how football would look like today. Then he explained what he meant about
associating football with media and business. He said that jerseys now have
logos of companies sponsoring them. Companies pay to have their logos around
the field and jerseys and so people would know about those companies when they
watch football matches. That logos will make the Companies become more known when they
have logos on the jerseys of famous teams.
I finally asked him whether he one day
hopes for me to become a football player. My father said to me that there is a
big risk entering this field. In brief, player’s especially professional ones have
to make certain compromises such as to abandon their higher studies to master
football. The hazard becomes high when they are seriously injured. This means simply
that their career has been totally damaged as well as their academic level. At
the end my father expressed how proud he is that I am currently continuing my
higher degrees so as to make a good living for my family and make my parents
forever proud of me and my certificate.
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