It was a vortex of many currents that all seemed to crunch together when Israeli Shahar Peer was refused a visa by the United Arab Emirates and thus was denied a slot in the showcase Barclay’s Dubai Championships. For starters, Dubai has crafted itself as a feel good (‘yes we actually can thrive with the West’) exception in the infamously dysfunctional Middle East where war, occupation and corruption were as common as sand storms in a still-struggling region whose post-colonial surge to enlightenment never really happened.
Glistening and upbeat, the UAE tried to buck the mired-in-war trend by re-tooling itself as a tourist mecca for sun-starved Euros. The fast-lane monarchy had an inventive recipe. Take a hefty dose of secular (“why can’t we just get along?”) thinking, add a pinch of Swiss-like above-the-fray neutrality and generously sprinkle in plenty of savvy Madison Ave. promotional ventures: i.e. stage big time country club sporting events which feature iconic international athletes and have lots of show and splash. There would be plenty of photos of happy stars in native gear riding camels. And now there is actually a Tiger Woods Private Community in Dubai, Federer The Magnificent resides there in high rise splendor and after his last visit, Agassi sang the praises of the sparkling oasis as an idyllic world where everybody got along.
The UAE’s ‘let’s all get rich together’ and shop-till-we drop ethos appeared to leave behind the debilitating cycle of tit-for-tat violence of the unending Israeli-Palestine conflict, the mess that’s Iraq, the astonishingly oil rich but kind of stuck-in-the middle ages kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the metro-dust and chaos of Cairo.
This was inspired social engineering, with a clear accent on shopping, real estate and sport in a metropolis that is planning the first ever sports city within a city. So a Dubai website boasts it’s the “The City of Firsts … a destination of enduring spirit and passion, a place whose heart and soul is expressed in rich iconography, timeless rituals and modern heroes. A place where sport is life, champions live, and legends are made.”
The only problem was that despite all the elegant shops, the soaring skyscrapers and spiffy modernity, this was still the Middle East – invasion and occupation, heat-seeking missiles, fear and retribution, gridlock violence. And after Israel’s furious invasion of Gaza, the UAE, on the eve of the WTA tournament refused Peer a visa.
Big whoops! The Tennis Channel quickly and courageously dropped its broadcast, the European Wall Street Journal withdrew its sponsorship and the UAE was hit with a firestorm of condemnation which prompted it to finally relent and grant Israeli Andy Ram a visa to play in the ATP event the next week.
This did little for the WTA, which claimed it was all but snookered by the UAE’s denial of Peer’s visa. In an e-mail to IT responding to the question as to why the tour didn’t pull out its top seeds when Peer was denied, WTA CEO Larry Scott wrote: “They only told us their decision as we were making the draw Saturday … just hours before the start, with all our players either there or on the way. After consulting Shahar, her family, other players, etc, we decided it would hurt more players and other innocents to do so, and we’d let the show go on.”
Although almost all the women’s players condemned what happened, no strong action was taken. Pam Shriver told ESPN that the tournament should have been cancelled immediately, but although Scott said he considered it, and at first, he and Players Council head Venus Williams did little more than to issue a series of strong words. They implied that Peer supported taking their measured approach and Venus contended: “The big picture is that Shahar didn’t get a chance to play, but making an immediate decision we also have to look at sponsors, fans and everyone who has invested a lot in the tournament.” Fine, but Venus has yet to apply this tempered approach which is supposedly so sensitive to fans and sponsors to the dicey stand-off in Indian Wells, which she is still boycotting due to what she feels was a disturbing racist experience in ’01.
Insiders quickly wondered why title sponsor Barclay’s bank didn’t withdraw. (Then again, last fall they got a windfall of cash from Middle Eastern investors as an alternative to accepting a UK government bailout). Others asked why tour sponsor Sony Ericsson didn’t demand an immediate pullout or why the WTA didn’t drop its association with its deep-pocket sponsor, Dubai Duty Free.
Tournament director Salah Tahlak spun the situation as he pointed more to security than politics and asserted that the presence of Peer, a former member of the Israeli army, “would have antagonized our fans who have watched live coverage of recent attacks in Gaza… Concern was raised about her well-being and her presence triggering similar protests [as when Peer recently played in Auckland]…The tournament could have been boycotted by protesters. We have to be sensitive to recent events … and not alienate or put at risk the players and…fans.” And actually big protests that were being planned for Israel’s upcoming Davis Cup match in Malmo, Sweden, forced organizers there to do the unthinkable: to plan to play the tie without the presence of any spectators!
As for the UAE, the reality is that they do not have diplomatic relations with Israel and opposed the Gaza invasion. Even though Dubai (which yes, has the tallest hotel in the world) tries to appear as highly Westernized, the UAE is a no-nonsense monarchy with a troubling human rights record. Think child abuse, a lack of workers and women’s rights, draconian drug laws and ‘arrest at will’ tendencies.
So, perhaps both tours are mistaken in chasing big Middle East bucks as they make a hefty pivot from their American, European and Aussie roots and fan bases. En route to the bank in a region that has long kept its ladies in the shadows or under the veil, women’s tennis did send the critical message that strong girls in little dresses can compete for big money. Still nearby Doha, Qatar – which now hosts the WTA Championships – has a horrific record of women’s rights, but nonetheless let Peer compete last year. And, who can forget that the WTA Tour itself was founded by humanist/feminist Billie Jean King who always stresses equality. Now, the tours are treading on thin ice.
The UAE did relent regarding Ram, but a UAE official quickly noted that the move didn’t imply political normalcy with Israel. Peer confided that her denial hurt her “personally and professionally “and said she wanted to compete in Dubai next year. She called Ram’s visa approval a “great victory for the principle that all athletes should be treated equally.”
So, what’s the future of tennis in Dubai? Scott told Reuters that the UAE “had no idea of the international condemnation…not just in the world of sport but beyond and that people in other sports and the Olympics were in shock and dismay.”
At week’s end, the WTA brought the hammer down, fining the tournament a record $300,000 and mandating that it post a $2 million financial performance guarantee by July 1 that it will meet a series of conditions in order to be kept on the 2010 calendar including:
* Confirmation that all players who qualify for the tournament shall, regardless of nationality, be allowed to play in the Dubai event and shall be issued visas.
* Proof of an entry permit to enter the UAE for any Israeli player a minimum of eight weeks prior to the start of the tournament, and guarantee that Peer shall be offered a wildcard to play in 2010 even if she does not qualify.
The tour will award Peer 130 ranking points, an amount equal to the points that she earned in ‘08 Memphis and will give her $44,250 in prize money, an amount equal to the average prize money that she earned per tournament in ‘08.
“The actions are intended to redress the wrongs suffered by Peer, who was victimized by an unjust policy of discrimination,” said Scott. “These actions are also intended to send a message that our Tour will not tolerate discrimination and that we will never allow this situation to happen again, in UAE or elsewhere.”
