In 2022, we witnessed a World Cup unlike any other – a World Cup that was full of firsts, especially for football fans in the Global South. Taking place in Qatar, it was the first hosted by an Arab country. Millions of Muslims got to experience the world’s top sporting event taking place in their own neighbourhood. We also saw an African team move on to the semi-finals for the first time in World Cup history. Sure, it was Argentina that took home the trophy, but countless football fans across the world felt like winners.The same tournament, however, left me feeling sad and with a throbbing headache. As I watched the games at a café near my home in Belgrade, Serbia, surrounded by football fans glued to TV screens, I struggled to share their joy. The loud noises, animated faces and the excitement in the air transported me back to Guantanamo, in 2010, when we, the prisoners, were permitted to watch the World Cup for the first time. Watching the tournament in Qatar made me revisit the hopes, fears and frustrations I experienced during my 14-year imprisonment and wonder when those of us who survived Guantanamo would finally have justice.I arrived at the infamous military detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba in early 2002, just a few months before the beginning of the 2002 World Cup. I had little interest in football, and as I tried to understand what happened to me and where I was, I didn’t really think at all about the upcoming tournament. At first, other prisoners were not talking much about the World Cup either. In those very early days of our imprisonment, we were held in Camp X-Ray, in rows of chain-link cages, where we were rarely given an opportunity to talk to other prisoners. And whenever we got a chance to exchange a few words, we talked about our prospects for release, rather than football.
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