Mehdi Ben Gharbia, a member of the Constituent Assembly (parliament) appeared in the political limelight after assuming the presidency of Le Club Athlétique Bizertin (CAB), which earned him local fame and likely enabled him to win many votes to win a seat in the Constituent Assembly.
Wealthy businessman, Slim Riahi, shifted his interests to sports after losing an electoral battle by having only one seat in the Constituent Assembly elections, despite the huge amounts of money that he spent during the election campaign.
Mehdi Ben Gharbia, a member of the Constituent Assembly (parliament) appeared in the political limelight after assuming the presidency of Le Club Athlétique Bizertin (CAB), which earned him local fame and likely enabled him to win many votes to win a seat in the Constituent Assembly.
Wealthy businessman, Slim Riahi, shifted his interests to sports after losing an electoral battle by having only one seat in the Constituent Assembly elections, despite the huge amounts of money that he spent during the election campaign.
Riahi sought to stay present in the spotlight by entering another battle: the election of the president of the Club Africain. In June 2012, he won the seat and became the president of the club hoping that the position would facilitate his path to future political success in the future.
Politicians have discovered that associating themselves with sports has helped boost their politicalcareers.
Riahi worked on polishing his image at home and abroad. After his failed experience in the first electoral process in Tunisia after the revolution, he chose the sport field that provides him with many privileges,” said Tariq Alallaymi, a lawyer, sports analyst and specialist in the affairs of Tunisian football.
Alallaymi said the presidency of the Club Africain, known for its popularity and broad mass base, could allow Riahi to win the sympathy of a significant segment of the Tunisian society and help him introduce himself by getting his pictures circulated in the media which will make his face familiar to people.”
Temporary failure
After more than a year of Slim Riahi’s experience in presiding over Club Africain, the team has still not been able to achieve the desired results, despite pumping 30, 000,000 Tunisian dinars (US $18,000,000) into the clubThe fans of Club Africain used to believe that their team would be a hard number in the last season, but the team came out of all competitions without any title, in football, basketball and handball. Riahi’s money could not bring any benefit to the moment”.
In contrast, the credit won by Riahi is that he was able to gain popular support despite the team’s failure. This has been very clear on his official Facebook page with number of fans reaching 200, 000, most of which are supporters of Club Africain.
We shift to talk about Slim Riahi’s political activity and his keenness on keeping a balance between sports, politics and media on his page (also being the owner of Attounissia channel frequency), which confirms that he is using his sports position in the political sphere, even if this use is indirect.
Al-Jamey al-Qasimi, a journalist and a political analyst,said: “Reliance on a sports’ popular base, which is usually wide by virtue of the popularity of sports and especially football, is a kind of swaying public opinion as a whole”. This is exactly what Slim Riahi was keen on doing. His sports activities and the results achieved by his team have had more importance than his political standing.
Al-Jamey believes that the presence of a big popular base, which Riahi was able to win through his sports activity, could be indirectly employed in the political sphere since he continues to lead a political party.
However, and according to al-Qasimi, this experience usually fails, he says, because the general public mood in politics is different from that of sports. The sports popular base is not necessarily the same in the political field and every game has its rules and principles.
In this regard, al-Qassimi said that “the political base usually changes and fluctuates according to the general mood and prevailing conditions. Thus, it is completely different from the popular base. This brings us to say that the move of businessman and politician, Slim Riahi, to the sports field is not necessarily a successful step. Let us wait and see what the first coming electoral experience shall bring with it before we judge the success of the man in making use of the sports arena.”
Local fame first
Parallel to the experience of Riahi, who combined politics, sports and media, the experience of Mehdi Ben Gharbia, a constituent assembly member, fluctuating between sports and politics seems balanced and relatively successful.
Before the revolution, Ben Gharbia was inglorious and almost unknown to the public, despite his political activism in the nineties.
But during January 14, 2011, a radical change occurred when he became the president of Le Club Athlétique Bizertin (CAB). After that, his popularity quickly rose and this helped him achieve success in the National Constituent Assembly’ elections for the Bizerte province (north), as a candidate for the Progressive Democratic Party (before joining the Democratic Alliance party).
Despite his political commitments, he continued to preside over the Bizertin presidency and he achieved some successe and enjoyed great support from the team’s fans.
Tarek Alallaymi, commented saying that “the Bizertin team became famous and enjoyed a great deal of success when Mehdi Ben Gharbia led the club. It started to become a serious competitor in local titles, won the Tunisia football cup and was qualified to enter the semi-finals of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup.”
“Ben Gharbia has largely succeeded in his sports mission and this has made him popular and appreciated by all the people of Bizerte. This has also gained him political rewards when his fans gave him their votes, leading to his success in the Constituent Assembly’s elections.”
Legal issues
The marriage between sports and politics has not been without some problems that have been earlier raised and are still without any solutions.
After the 2011 revolution in Tunis, a new decree regulating the work of associations was issued in the form of decree number 88 2011, which bans the holding of partisan and associative functions and also applies to sports clubs.
Slim Riahi has already been notified earlier about the need to separate between the presidency of the Free Patriotic Union Party and Club Africain. But some legal loopholes have helped him not fall into such a predicament and he is, until now, practicing the two activities without any problems.
Loud voices are calling on the government to implement this law so as not to allow associations to serve partisan and political purposes.
Among the devoted persons on this issue is lawyer Salah Elhijry, who called the General Secretariat of the Government to respect the laws and enforce them. Elhijry he said he has prepared an integrated file that highlights the lack of respect for Decree 88 and all of its chapters. He also asked the government’s GS to be decisive in its application so as to avoid the use of sports in achieving political gains, but no one cares.”
Our host says that he was subjected to harassment to dissuade him from his desperate defense of this decree. But he is resolute in moving forward in his quest, stressing that he is not targeting any specific person or party, yet only keen on having the law implemented and respected.
It is in this context that this law does not exclude anyone and does not include sports officials who have partisan activities. It also covers some other politicians who established charities like Sadeq Churu and Habib Ellouze (from amongst the leaders of the Ennahda ruling party), who manage the Preaching and Reform Association.
Apart from this legal debate and that confusion that was raised earlier, the talk about the marriage of interests between politics and sports in Tunisia finds some defenders such as those who believe that this experience is not limited to Tunisia, but can be considered a reproduction of international experiences such as those of the Gulf, France and Italy—with Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and former chairman of the Milan club, would be the most prominent example.
