In Goal: Where is Al-Arabi?

I do not know what happened at Al-Arabi Club during such a short period that caused its football team to go from the podium of triumph to this bewildering scene, evoking not only surprise but also pity for its fans. Their joy over winning the Crown Prince Cup was only a few months old when they found their team as if it had forgotten the way to football. How did the club’s board of directors manage, in just four months, to transform a team that was celebrating a championship title into the side we see today?

Al-Arabi, which won the title last May and presented itself at the time as one of the strong contenders capable of competing for the titles of the new season, has appeared this season with a completely different face. The squad is depleted, scattered, and lacks a clear identity, featuring modest foreign professionals and local players who seem to have lost their way to experience on the path to the pitch. Just three matches were enough to reveal the scale of the problem: eight goals conceded, with two draws and one defeat. Perhaps some argue that results alone are insufficient to judge a team at the start of the season, and this is true. However, the problem is that the performance itself offers no reason for optimism. More important than results is the fact that the level displayed by the team does not suggest that this is merely a early-season stumble that can be overcome with time and patience; it is far bigger and deeper than that.

The problem at Al-Arabi appears to be administrative before it is technical, and psychological before it is tactical. Is it conceivable that the club would part ways with a coach who led them to a championship a few months prior and placed the team in the contention circle, only to begin a journey of searching and experimenting with another coach without the public even knowing the real reasons for this change? Then comes the more important question: How can a team compete and achieve results if its squad includes foreigners who are professionals only in name, some of whom do not seem to know the basics of positioning and placement on the pitch? A foreign professional is supposed to be an addition, not a puzzle that the administration and technical staff seek to solve every match.

As for the financial file, there is much to say. Every day brings news, problems, and circulating complaints about unpaid player dues. We then hear and see players leaving the club and moving to rivals. Here, the question is not about the value of a player who departed, but about the reason that causes a club of Al-Arabi’s stature to lose its players in this manner. Thus, we are only now certain that the issue is no longer just a technical flaw that can be fixed by changing a tactic, swapping a player, or even hiring a new coach.

Al-Arabi today does not need technical “patching,” but a genuine administrative review. The team that was champion in May cannot become this poor in September unless there were mistakes committed off the pitch before their effects appeared on it. Al-Arabi fans do not ask for the impossible; they simply want, and have the right to understand: How did the champion turn into a team searching for itself within just a few months?

Before anyone philosophizes and says, “Al-Arabi has not lost a championship this season yet,” we say: “But it seems to have lost its team, and decided to give others a precious opportunity to shine, and to spare them the effort and trouble of searching for easy points.” And the question, if this “brilliant” planning continues, is: “Who will bring us back the Al-Arabi we know, at least for the upcoming season?”