Thanks to Tom for sending me the link to his article in the London Times about Iraq’s national football team (that’s soccer to us North Americans). Tom interviewed Sharar Haydar, who played professional football for Iraq’s national teams for 12 years, and says he was tortured by Uday Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein’s son:
“He didn’t just torture us when we lost,” Haydar said when we met last Wednesday in a London coffee shop. “Even when we won. He started by shaving hair — I know in Britain it’s a fashion now but in Iraq it’s a big embarrassment. After that he started to put players in prison. He used to come to watch us, sometimes we won three or four-nil but still he (ordered his guards to) take three or four players, put them in prison and torture them because he didn’t like their form. Then he started to beat the coach, referees . . . ”
Food for thought the next time a high school basketball coach gets chewed out for making his team run laps.