Allt leyfilegt fyrir Saudi Arabíu, nema það sem aðrir mega

"Issued in 2003 by Sheikh Abdallah Al-Nadji and printed by the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan in August 2005, the fatwa forbidding football - except when played as training for Jihad - lists fifteen prohibitions, including:

Don't play football with four lines [surrounding the field], since this is the way of the non believers.

One should not use the terminology established by the nonbelievers and the polytheists, like: 'foul', 'penalty-kick', 'corner kick', 'goal', and 'out of bounds'. Whoever pronounces these terms should be punished, reprimanded, kicked out of the game, and should even be told in public: 'You have come to resemble the non-believers and the polytheists, and this has been forbidden.'

Do not set the number [of players] according to the number of players used by the non-believers, the Jews, the Christians, and especially the vile America. In other words, eleven players shall not play together. Make it a larger or smaller number.

Do not play in two parts [i.e. halves], but rather in one part or in three parts, so as to be different than the sinful and rebellious, the non-believers and the polytheists.

When you finish playing, be careful not to talk about the game, and not to say 'we play better than the opponent,' or 'so-and-so is a good player.' Moreover, you should speak about your body, its strenght and its muscles, and about the fact that you are playing as [a means of] training to run, attack, and retreat in preperation for jihad for Allah's sake.

If one of you inserts the ball between the posts and then starts to run so that his companions will run after him and hug him, like the players in America and France do, you should spit in his face, punish him, and reprimand him, for what do joy, hugging, and kissing have to do with sports?

[Úr The thinking fan's guide to the World Cup]

Greinilegt að menn geta átt von á hverju sem er frá Saudum sem mætir liði Túnis á morgun, miðvikudag. Reyndar eru 98% Túnismanna múslimar líkar. Kannski verða þetta þrír hálfleikir með sjö manns í öðru liðinu og þrettán í hinu.