Lebanon use World Cup as fight for acceptance
Team seeks positive story to defuse racial tension England next opponents after victory over France
It is almost a year since Peter Dutton, Australia’s immigration minister, stood up in parliament and said it was a “mistake” for previous governments to have allowed Lebanese migrants into the country.
The comments were incendiary, divisive and swiftly derided as “outrageous”. Yet they were just the latest chapter in a sorry tale of racial friction between Australia and its sizeable Lebanese community, which is battling to repair its image amid growing anxieties over Australian multiculturalism.
At the forefront of the charm offensive are Lebanon’s rugby league side, who face England today a week after securing their first World Cup victory with a 29-18 win over France.
“We are hoping that our success and World Cup campaign will give a different image to our community in Australia,” says Remond Safi, the chief executive of the Lebanese Rugby League Federation.
That image has been shaped by simmering racial unrest that came to the boil in the early 2000s, when a series of gang rapes by Lebanese Muslim youths opened a chasm that grew ever wider following the attacks of Sept 11.
In 2005, those tensions resulted in race riots in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla.
“Without sugar-coating it, there are times that, in this country, the Lebanese community does get a bad name and has been in the media for all the wrong reasons,” said Lebanon’s Robbie Farah before the tournament. “So, we have got an opportunity to be in the media for the right reasons and to send out some positive messages.”
Victory over France certainly did that, even if a repeat result against Wayne Bennett’s England is likely to prove beyond the reach of the tournament’s lowest-ranked side.
That said, there are plenty of reasons for optimism, not least the presence of a handful of NRL stars, including Farah, prop Tim Mannah and stand-off Mitchell Moses, alongside their part-time teammates. Also, Lebanon are guided by coach Brad Fittler, who is bristling with World Cup pedigree having twice won the tournament as a player with Australia. The side’s links to Australia are predictably tight. Of their 24-man squad, only one is a homegrown player who is based in Lebanon. But there are four Lebanon-based non-playing members of the team who have been included with the hope that they can fuel the game back home.
The growth of the sport on a domestic level, Safi says, is the key to Lebanon’s long-term success as a rugby league nation. Having started off in Lebanese communities in Sydney, the sport arrived in the country in the late 1990s, before a team were put together for the World Cup in 2000.
On a domestic level, rugby league has been an established sport since 2002. There are now five clubs competing in a main league, 11 university teams competing in two divisions, three women’s teams and regional schools championships.
“There is a strong following back at home,” says Safi. “There is more awareness of the game. We are now one of the top three sports, behind basketball and football.”
The domestic league will become
ever more important because eligibility rules mean that Lebanon will not be able to rely on Australia, where the Lebanese-australian community stands at around 250,000, to produce its players in the long term.
Under the current regulations, players are allowed to play for the country of birth of their parents or grandparents.
As many Lebanese migrants came to Australia in the late 1970s, following the outbreak of the country’s civil war, the number of eligible Lebanese-australians will soon start to dwindle. “Eventually, we will run out of eligible players from Australia,” Safi says.
A more pressing concern, though, is England, who fell to an 18-4 defeat by Australia in the tournament’s opening game last week. Today’s fixture is the first between the countries, and England are well aware of the need to prepare for another hostile atmosphere.
“They are an international side with some quality players in there,” said assistant England coach Denis Betts. “They have got a massive following in this part of the world. We have to match their enthusiasm and their intensity.”