AMMAN — Jordanian basketball has lost its lustre over the past years due to financial, technical and administrative challenges, team players, coaches, federation members and fans have agreed.
Wael Zubeidi, who has been attending basketball matches for around 20 years, said the audience these days is not “as excited” to watch basketball matches due to the decline in performance and the overwhelming popularity of football as a national game.
“I find the future of basketball in Jordan somewhat gloomy; it’s not like it used to be, and we don’t see the same level of competence among our team players, which is truly disappointing,” he told The Jordan Times recently.
Zaina Salaytah, a younger fan, blamed the media for not giving enough coverage to basketball tournaments throughout the year.
“All we see is advertisements and TV shows on football… Many people prefer watching basketball, but do not have access to the latest news since media outlets do not cover it enough,” Salaytah added.
Changes in the national team
Former coach and basketball player Murad Barakat said Jordanian basketball has been going through some changes, which contributed to the current slump.
He said the return of expatriates and the recruitment of foreigners who were granted nationality helped “boost the performance” of the national team to a certain degree in the last decade.
“This change had a positive impact on the technical level, but it failed to generate lasting audience interest. With time passing, the game had lost its audience and popularity among Jordanians,” Barakat, who has coached the national team and the Orthodox club, told The Jordan Times.
Sam Daghlas, the national team’s current head coach, said the main issue is the lack of financial support and miscommunication between the management and the team members.
“As the head coach, I saw players come with a lower level of skills due to participating in a weak tournament and for not practising regularly, since the clubs are not committed for several reasons, including not receiving sufficient funding,” he said.
Daghlas added: “Another reason is the payment. When players are not paid enough, it makes it harder for them to commit and they tend to find other jobs, but I always say if a sport wasn’t given a player’s full time, it would never work.”
From the Jordan Basketball Federation, Executive Manager Ghaleb Balawi blamed the lack of funding and courts to practise for the sport’s decline.
“There are only two main venues for basketball matches in Jordan — the Prince Hamzah Hall in Amman and the other one is in Irbid,” he told The Jordan Times.
Daghlas said a sport without funding and professional clubs “does not work”, citing as another challenge the federation’s failure “to adapt to the new ways used in other countries”.
Player Zaid Abbas,who is playing in the Chinese Jiangsu Tong Xi basketball club for the 2016-2017 season, said the issues facing Jordanian basketball are due to not having clubs and basketball centres that provide players with a sufficient income.
“Many basketball players in Jordan work two jobs. The money that they get from this sport is no longer sufficient, and working another job makes them lose focus,” Abbas explained.
Balawi said Jordanian basketball is witnessing fewer crowds than those of the 1970s and the 1980s due to the rapid spread of technology and the fact that people can view matches online.
Daghlas agreed that this could be a factor, saying that many people rely on technology to stay updated on match results instead of going to the court and cheering for their favourite teams.
But the lack of marketing campaigns to promote the team and the sport has also contributed to the game’s waning popularity, he argued.
‘U16 and U18 teams unprepared’
Schools should prepare at least 20 to 50 basketball players to qualify for the try-outs of the national team; however, no more than 10 young players from schools every year have the skills for it, Daghlas said.
The responsibility of “bringing Jordanian basketball back on track” depends on schools and the local clubs around Jordan, according to the federation.
“Schools are holding basketball tournaments for a day or two every year — this is not enough for young players to develop their skills and evaluate them,” Balawi said.
When Daghlas joined the national team in 2005, many players joined the team as well, which contributed to “boosting” their skills, he said, adding that the period between 2006 and 2011 was the “golden age” of Jordanian basketball.
“The team started changing, since we imported players from other countries; the proficiency of the players increased. Afterwards, the federation set a plan to ensure the team qualifies to the Olympics or the [FIBA World Cup],” he said.
Barakat said that after the national team successfully qualified to the FIBA World Cup in 2010, “we entered a phase of a steady decline”. He charged that the basketball federation “is unable to find solutions” for the status of the sport in the country.
“Under international rules and regulations, the basketball federation should hold at least two meetings a month with players and coaches,” he continued. For six straight months earlier this year, “they didn’t hold any meetings”.
Abbas, who joined the national team in 2004, agreed that the proficiency level of basketball witnessed a decline after 2011.
“Since then, the team has changed, with younger players joining who don’t have the same experience as the older generation,” he added.
“As long as the media, companies and [the concerned authorities] do not take action to bring Jordanian basketball back on track, we will witness more decline in performance and attendance,” Abbas warned.
Asia Challenge Cup
Despite the technical and financial difficulties facing the sport, the national team achieved good results in the Asia Challenge Cup, earning the bronze medal after winning six matches and losing two — one to China and another to title winners Iran.
Daghlas said the effort exerted by the national team in the Asia Challenge Cup in September was “a huge accomplishment” for the team, and it “proved to Asia that the Jordanian team is progressing” and “getting its team back”.
However, despite all the success, when the team players returned to Jordan, according to the coach, “there was no change in the basketball community”.
“Players are still misused; there is no improvement, no change. It hurts, because you come back to Jordan and have to deal with these problems,” he told The Jordan Times.
“One thing… that I’ve noticed is that players are doing everything they can despite the limited resources… But the managements are not doing everything they can; their efforts do not exceed 40 per cent,” Daghlas charged.
The challenge, for the coach, he said, is to be the “middleman” between the team members and the federation, because he believes players are being “misrepresented, misused and misunderstood”.
Daghlas said the past three years were the worst for local basketball.
“I knew it was better for me to retire as a player and try to save the sport and help the players.”
The coach said he seeks to help the team qualify to the upcoming 2019 FIBA World Cup, in addition to building a new generation.
Daghlas added that the federation’s president, Samer Asfour, “was able to see his vision to change the basketball team”; however, he urged the remaining federation members to “trust his proposal” for the World Cup to “ensure moving forward”.
The 2016 Jordanian basketball season is “one of the worst”, he said, explaining that it was “short”, with only 14 games and that it was missing many national team members such as Musa Awadi and Mahmoud Abdeen.
“Clubs are not doing their job. The federation has to back the national team and to trust the coach’s vision to bring basketball back on track in Jordan.”
Daghlas urged audiences to “care about the sport like it’s your own”, as part of the process to revive local basketball.
“The more fans we get coming out, the louder the voice will be for basketball,” he said.
“Care about Jordan. When you like a sport, go support it — whether it was a good game or a weak one. Don’t look at who they’re playing against, go support them anyway, make a change.”
AMMAN — The Jordan Cup Round 2 kicked off Monday with tough matches after Round 1 ended with Ramtha and Jazira heading the tables of the two groups.
