Tunisia’s oldest and most popular football team L’Esperance was gearing up for a match against CS Sfax at the end of the week, when the interior ministry spontaneously postponed the event, citing concerns about the nation’s security situation.
Tunisia’s oldest and most popular football team L’Esperance was gearing up for a match against CS Sfax at the end of the week, when the interior ministry spontaneously postponed the event, citing concerns about the nation’s security situation.
“We are permanent and you are passers-by…” and “We are the castle of struggle… Who are you?”, were among dozens of the slogans chanted by L’Esperance fans in protest of the information mentioned in the Black Book issued by President Moncef Marzouki earlier this month. Marzourki accused the team of winning titles with the support of the former President Ben Ali’ sons in law.
The fans of the team prepared banners and flags along with songs and chants in an organized display called dakhla, meaning “entrance.” One thousand dinars (US $ were allocated for these preparations and most of the banners were hostile and cynical of the interim President Marzouki, who did not hesitate, according to these fans, to implicate the name of L’Esperance in his infamous Black Book.
The book listed Esperance among the “corrupt” teams, in other words, dealing with the dictatorial regime of Ben Ali, as the team’s former president was Slim Chiboub, Ben Ali’s the son-in-law.
Esperance fans considered these accusations against the team as a direct and extreme insult to their association. The fans of the team were surprised that theirs was the only sport club mentioned in the book and considered this a plot against it.
To avoid violent confrontations with unknown consequences, the interior ministry decided to postpone the game, which led to increased tension and anger among the fans. They carried slogans written on them: “the Black Book stopped the tournament and the ball will stop the government.”
Not the first time
Majdi Khulaifi, the Secretary General of the African Club, the historic rival of the L’Esperance said:”I think it is very important today to distance ourselves from the politicization of sports.”
The L’Esperance Society, in a statement issued by its administrative board, said: “It still maintains its principles of separating sports from politics. It is very dangerous to play the two games together.”
With regard to Marzouki’s book, Abdul Sattar Mabkhoot, official spokesman for the team said: “Marzouki’s Black Book is a political game par excellence. It has nothing to do with L’Esperance and I am surprised to see the name of our team implicated in this game.”
On the other hand, Mabkhoot admitted that his club had supported the former regime, like all other clubs. “This selective and discriminatory attitude has made a considerable damage to our team, which was forced, like all other teams, to support Ben Ali.”
However, the history of L’Esperance extends over a period of one hundred years (since 1919) yet has been reduced to the period when it was chaired by Slim Chiboub, Mabkhoot complained.
Correspondents learned that the name Marzouki was present in all the slogans that were supposed to decorate the stadium last Sunday, December 8. It also learned that the slogans included a picture of a donkey carrying the face of Marzouki, wearing his old glasses and riding on the donkey, which also carries the logo of L’Esperance. Marzouki is allegedly shown carrying a fishhook with a bottle of wine clutched to it.
Mohammed Ali Nabeli, a L’Esperance fan said: “We are not against the idea of accountability and the publishing of a list containing the names of all those who committed suspicious acts and offended our country during the Ben Ali’s era. However, mentioning the name of our club only has angered us. We wouldn’t have felt offended if the name of Slim Chiboub, the former president of the club was mentioned, not the whole club. Everybody knows that he made many violations under the name of our team.”
Tarnished reputation
With the state of tension that has overshadowed the team’s fans and with threats of escalation by fabs to “salvage the dignity” of their club, the official spokesman for the presidency Adnen Mansar, downplayed the importance of the event. “The book was talking about the period when the club was presided by the son of law of Ben Ali and which lasted for 15 years and witnessed many violations.”
“The book did not question the authenticity of the club and its long history, which is full of achievements and local and continental titles and it did not deny its contribution to making the Tunisian flag fly high in the skies.”
However, this justification was not enough for the club’s fans, who found in the social networks their optimal way to comment on this event. Some addressed this issue in a serious manner while others used irony as a mean to embarrass the President.
