The club players in the 2019 Asia Soccer Cup. The logo of the Swiss sponsor company 14Fourteen appears on the shirt (on the left) (Bukra Ahla website, October 2019).
The president of the Al-Ahed Sport Club, Adv. Tamim Suleiman, awards Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah the championship cup won by the soccer team, through Hezbollah’s Sheikh Nabil Qaouq (Al-Akhbar daily, May 18, 2017)
The inauguration ceremony of the Sports Academy. The logo of the Al-Ahed Sport Club is visible in the middle of the photo (Janoub Media website, no date mentioned)
The flag of the Al-Ahed Sport Club on a Hezbollah jeep with a mounted rocket launcher in a Hezbollah outpost, probably in the desert in eastern Syria.
Overview
- Ever since its establishment, Hezbollah has been very active among the Shiite younger generation through a series of foundations and institutions: two education networks operating among the Shiite population (kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools); the Education Mobilization, an institution engaged in the indoctrination of students in the Lebanese education systems (including universities); the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts, Hezbollah’s youth movement; and the Sports Mobilization, which promotes extensive sports activity as a means to indoctrinate the younger generation.
As part of this extensive activity, in the 1990s, Hezbollah adopted the Al-Ahed Sport Club, which operates one of the leading soccer teams in Lebanon. The club maintains a close connection with Hezbollah’s Sports Mobilization and is possibly subordinate to it. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is described as a great fan of the Al-Ahed soccer team. During the past 15 years, the Al-Ahed soccer team has recorded many achievements. Its players have won a series of championships in the Lebanese league and the Lebanese Cup. Recently, the team also won the Asia Cup (November 2019). The Al-Ahed team is used as a means to increase Hezbollah’s popularity among the younger generation, the Shiite population, and the general Lebanese public. It also represents a source of solidarity among Hezbollah’s operatives and is used to inculcate values of Hezbollah such as the culture of shahids and Hassan Nasrallah’s personality cult among the Shiite population.
Al-Ahed soccer team – a source of solidarity and support for Hezbollah’s operatives
Right: The flag of the Al-Ahed Sport Club on a Hezbollah jeep with a mounted rocket launcher in a Hezbollah outpost, probably in the desert in eastern Syria. Left: Hezbollah operatives in Syria waving the flag of the Al-Ahed Sport Club on a vehicle with a mounted anti-aircraft gun (Facebook)
- Hezbollah, referred to in many countries as a terrorist organization, gains legitimacy inside Lebanon as well as internationally through the Al-Ahed soccer team. Its home soccer stadium received official recognition (field certificate) from the international soccer federation, FIFA. Apparently, it is also financed by FIFA Goal. The team is sponsored by 14Fourteen, an international Swiss company for sports equipment, based in Geneva. The team took part in the 2019 Asia Soccer Cup (AFC Cup), where it defeated a North Korean team in the final. The cup won by the team in the championship of the Lebanese league (2017) was awarded to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah through Sheikh Nabil Qaouq (a senior Hezbollah figure).
The club players in the 2019 Asia Soccer Cup. The logo of the Swiss sponsor company 14Fourteen appears on the shirt (on the left) (Bukra Ahla website, October 2019). Left: The president of the Al-Ahed Sport Club, Adv. Tamim Suleiman, awards Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah the championship cup won by the soccer team, through Hezbollah’s Sheikh Nabil Qaouq (Al-Akhbar daily, May 18, 2017)
![Field Certificate of the international soccer federation FIFA for the stadium of the Al-Ahed soccer team. The certificate is signed by Sepp Blatter[1], FIFA’s eighth president (website of the Jordan-based Mondo, the company that built Al-Ahed’s home stadium).](https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/12/266_19_02.jpg)
Field Certificate of the international soccer federation FIFA for the stadium of the Al-Ahed soccer team. The certificate is signed by Sepp Blatter[1], FIFA’s eighth president (website of the Jordan-based Mondo, the company that built Al-Ahed’s home stadium).
- On September 27, 2018, in a speech at the UN General Assembly, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exposed three sites in south Beirut (near the international airport), used for manufacturing precision missiles. One of the sites was located underneath the home stadium of the Al-Ahed soccer team. Subsequently, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil organized a tour for foreign diplomats and photographers in these sites, including the Al-Ahed Stadium, to refute Israel’s claims. In the ITIC’s assessment, this tour was a propaganda move coordinated with Hezbollah, which took care of removing any incriminating findings from the Al-Ahed team’s soccer stadium and the other sites mentioned by the Israeli prime minister.
Right: The three sites where Hezbollah attempted to build facilities to convert rockets into precision missiles. The middle site is the Al-Ahed team’s soccer stadium. Left: Hezbollah’s site at the Al-Ahed team’s soccer stadium, near Beirut’s International Airport (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, September 27, 2018)
Structure of the study
- The study includes the following sections:
- Al-Ahed Sport Club
- Basic information
- The club’s home stadium
- The club’s senior figures
- Al-Ahed’s sponsors
- Al-Ahed Club’s connection with Hezbollah
- Connection between Al-Ahed soccer club and Hezbollah
- Hezbollah-related objects in Al-Ahed Club secretary Mohamad Assi’s office
- Hezbollah operatives’ expressions of solidarity with the Al-Ahed team
- (Previous) sponsorship by Al-Manar TV on the club’s shirts
- Al-Ahed players killed while serving in Hezbollah’s ranks
- Hezbollah’s soccer team wins the Asia Soccer Cup
- Winning the AFC Cup
- Reception in Lebanon used for promoting Hezbollah’s shahid culture
- Soccer and terrorism: Exposure of a site for converting rockets into precision missiles underneath the Al-Ahed team’s home stadium
- Benjamin Netanyahu exposes a rocket converting site in the Al-Ahed’s home stadium
- Facilities “vanish” during the visit of foreign diplomats
- Appendix: The ITIC’s publications on Hezbollah’s civilian infrastructure
- Al-Ahed Sport Club
[1] Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s eighth president (1998-2015), was suspended for six years from any activity in FIFA due to accusations of corruption and financial mismanagement (Wikipedia). ↑
