The population of Beirut, Lebanon, tries to devalue what is happening in the south of the country, where clashes between Hezbollah and Israel have increased, but foreigners are “scared.” This is stated by the Portuguese coach of Al Nejmeh, Paulo Meneses, in the Lebanese country since December, who considers that the team’s feeling reflects that of society.
“The locals, for example, my two assistants who are from here, one of them at least an hour from the border with Israel, where Hezbollah is based and is – according to information – in combat with Israeli forces, himself “This has always happened, now maybe it’s a little more serious, but this has always happened,” he explains, speaking with TSFinsisting that “there have always been problems on the border with Hezbollah and Israeli forces.”
“They try to deal with it as best they can, it seems to me, from what they say, that it is normal. Of course, for us all this is new and that is why we are a little scared. Today we trained.” [segunda-feira] in the afternoon and, after training, the foreign players who are two Portuguese, one Ukrainian, one Lebanese boy, but who has always lived in Australia and one from Canada, met me in my office and with the technical team and told me “They are very afraid and scared,” adds Paulo Meneses.
The Al Nejmeh coach states that he has already contacted the Portuguese embassy in Nicosia and reveals the recommendations that are being given to Portuguese people living in Lebanon.
“The information they gave me – they even created a group on WhatsApp with all the Portuguese who live here in Lebanon so that we can stay in touch and have all the information up to date – they asked us to include where we live, the contact details,” the direction and always be attentive and cautious, but, at this moment, there is no information to leave the country, as happened with Israel. That is the information we have, official information from the embassy,” he explains.
Paulo Meneses also highlights that, in the Lebanese State, politics and religion are involved and that is why he avoids them, even assuming: “I don’t ask, nor do I want to know. Otherwise, they start mixing politics and religion and sport and I’m here.” to work and give my best as a coach.
“Here religion and politics mix like I’ve never seen before, and when you get into sports, everything ends. Normally I say: I don’t care about religions or politics, I’m a coach, I’m a coach.” I am from sports, I am for peace, why? For example, in our team there are Muslim and Christian people – within Muslims there are several religions – and they value that a lot and sometimes it seems that before I arrived – from what I see – I understand, I came in December, and from the comments that received from them, it seemed that the decisions made by this or another player seemed to have a little to do with religion, so I have distanced myself from all that, as a coach, as a sports agent,” he adds.
The coach also points out that “the Lebanese are very excited, quite a bit” and, despite everything, he believes that the population is not against the presence of Hezbollah in the country.
“They are not against Hezbollah being in the country, a bit also because of the attacks that Israel has carried out several times in the past here in the country and they know that Hezbollah is a force that ends up protecting the country from Israel and Of course, whoever is attacked has that feeling of revolt or hatred,” he concludes.
Source: TSF
