Before the Lights Go Out!

It visits us once every four years, captivating our minds, enchanting our hearts, and unleashing our hidden emotions, just as it reveals our deep-seated alignments and regional biases; even members of the same family find themselves divided by loyalties colored by the competing teams on the green field. However, these divisions quickly fade when Arab teams are present, behind whom hearts, flags, and slogans unite, and eyes overflow with tears at losses.We do not hide our feelings, prayers, or biases towards the "Spanish Matador" whose fans sided with our tragedy. As we bid farewell today to the global football carnival, we are not just bidding farewell to a football tournament that filled the world and occupied people over the past weeks, but rather we are bidding farewell to memories we lived through, with their sweetness and bitterness, their joy and clamor, just as we are bidding farewell to a part of our lives, asking Almighty God to grant us a long life to witness the next edition, and to add new stories and tales to our archive of emotions and museum of memories.Perhaps the iconic image of "King" Messi caressing the infant "Amin Yamal" or "Lamine Yamal" in a bathtub about twenty years ago carries many twists of fate. After the child slowly grew up and became strong, he now stands facing the "King," threatening to dethrone him!… Messi described the picture when asked about it by saying: "It's crazy," while the photographer described that moment as a "miracle."There are many lessons and insights that emerge after the lights go out, the gathering disperses, and the dust of football battles on the fields settles; perhaps foremost among them is the necessity of unifying international standards and imposing strict oversight on the "field judges" whose mistakes and biases shattered the dreams of teams that did not deserve defeat.As the curtain falls and the floodlights dim in the stadiums, we say: May every tournament bring you closer to achieving your hopes and dreams and ending your path of suffering, so that the sun of freedom and justice may shine on the land that has endured the pain of loss and the bitterness of waiting for a thousand days and more.Note: The article was written before the match began.