São Paulo – The government of Oman aims to professionalize football in the country. For this reason, the country has chosen the teams of São Paulo and the São Paulo State Football Federation (FPF) to help attract more athletes, sponsors and to promote more championships. No contract has been signed yet, but Omar Alawi, the representative of the government of Oman, said that the chances of establishing a partnership are great. “We have a verbal agreement, but I do not know how long it will take. I believe that we will soon sign one,” said Alawi, who visited the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, in São Paulo, on Friday (1).
Last week, Alawi met with FPF president Marco Polo Del Nero and visited the São Paulo training grounds, in Cotia, and the Corinthians training grounds, in São Paulo. Last Saturday, he was scheduled to meet with the Corinthians football manager, Edu Gaspar. The idea of establishing partnerships with the clubs, according to Alawi, is to take Brazilian professionals to help teams in Oman and to train players, prepare practise sessions and club structure. This was one of the aspects that most impressed the visitor. “I had no clue Brazil was like this. The importance you grant football cannot be seen elsewhere. The clubs are like parents to their players. It is incredible,” he said.
At the meeting with the FPF president, in turn, Alawi discussed partnerships to organize football tournaments in the Arab country and to train Arab football coaches. “We discussed partnerships with the FPF to bring talks in the refereeing sector and to help organize our championships.” According to the president of the State Refereeing Committee at FPF, Marcos Marinho, the talk also covered the professionalization of referees in Oman. If the project comes true, this will be the first FPF experience in training referees in other countries.
The Omani football federation’s budget is US$ 50 million a year and these partnerships should be covered within those funds. The proposal of the government of Oman is not to buy Brazilian players. “The wages you pay are outside our reality. That is not what we want. We want to make the sport more professional.” He does not reveal, however, if this professionalization is aimed at organizing a World Cup, as is the case with Qatar, to host the 2022 edition of the event.
What they wish, however, is to improve the quality of the organisation and of the matches in Oman. Brazil is now in the fifth place in the Fifa national team ranking. The experience of Brazilians in the sport and its management and the admiration the Arabs have for the country’s professionals are among the reasons that brought Alawi to Brazil instead of taking him to Spain, England, Germany or Italy.
“You have been world champions five times. When the topic is football in our country, the first thing that comes to mind is the yellow shirt of your national team. I was surprised to see the difference between you and us in football. I saw the São Paulo match [in which the team lost to 2×0 to Botafogo, from Rio de Janeiro, on the 29th of June] and despite the team being behind, the supporters were pushing it. My expectations regarding the sport in Brazil were exceeded,” he said.
On returning to his country, Alawi will present the partnership proposals to the Foreign Minister of Oman, Yousef Alawi Abdulah Al Ibrahim. If the budget is approved, the government will draw up the contracts and send them to the Brazilians. “I make a point of returning to Brazil to sign the contracts. To me it will be like the birth of a son.”
*Translated by Mark Ament
