US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT4531

UNCLAS KUWAIT 004531 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, SOCI, KU 
SUBJECT: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY VS. GOVERNMENT: FOOTBALL MATCH 
UNITES POLITICAL OPPOSITES 
 
 
1.  (SBU) Government Ministers and National Assembly members 
(MPs) faced off October 19 for their fifth annual Ramadan 
football match.  Laying aside both their traditional 
dishdashas (robes) and their political differences, Ministers 
and MPs alike donned football jerseys to participate in the 
jovial match.  Although political opposites, Islamists and 
liberals played together, united in a common goal: defeating 
the opposing team.  Although leading at half-time, the 
Government lost the game 2 to 1 in the last minutes to the 
MPs, whose greater endurance proved the decisive factor. 
Shaykh Mohammed Al-Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, who played 
for the Government, joked with Poloff after the game that the 
Government had allowed the MPs to win the football match in 
exchange for the Government winning in the National Assembly. 
 
 
2.  (U) Playing on the Government team were Minister of 
Energy Ahmed Al-Fahd Al-Sabah, Minister of Justice Ahmed 
Baqer, Minister of Information Dr. Anas Al-Rashaid, Minister 
of Finance Bader Al-Humaidhi, Council of Ministers Secretary 
General Abdul Latif Al-Roudhan, Chairman of the Citizens' 
Services Agency Shaykh Mohammed Al-Abdullah Al-Mubarak 
Al-Sabah, and editor-in-chief of the Arabic-daily Al-Watan 
Shaykh Khalifa Ali Al-Khalifa Al-Sabah.  The National 
Assembly team featured independent Islamist MP Jassem 
Al-Kandari, liberal MP Mohammed Jassem Al-Sager, Salafi MP 
Abdullah Akkash, liberal MP Meshari Al-Anjari, Muslim 
Brotherhood MP Nasser Al-Sane, and liberal MP Ahmed 
Al-Mlaifi.  The match was officiated by Waleed Al-Nisf, the 
editor-in-chief of Arabic-daily Al-Qabas. 
 
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