Uday, son of Saddam Hussein, father and self appointed media czar/assassin (not media assassin, just plain killed people for shits and giggles), controlled the Iraq Olympic Committee and Iraq Soccer Federation. From The Iraq Foundation:
"Uday heads Iraq's football federation and national Olympic committee, and owns its leading sports paper, al-Baath. But his passion for sport is accompanied by brutality and corruption.
"My back was a mess of blood and I could not sleep for days except on my stomach in a tiny cell," said Saad [Saad defected to Europe]. "Since I was a boy kicking a ball around Baghdad's streets, football has been my life. But the beatings ruined the game for me. One day I decided I no longer wanted to be a part of it and found the courage to leave."
Saad is the second Iraqi footballer to leave in less than two years. His testimony confirms that of Sharar Haydar Mohamad al-Hadithi, a 32-year-old team-mate. After fleeing in 1999, Sharar described being hit on the soles of his feet, dragged on his bare back through gravel, then forced into a tank of sewage so the wounds would be infected."
I like this part too:
"Uday once loaned Saad to Qatar for two weeks. Of his $10,000 fee he received only $2,000. The rest was taken by Uday. "We sometimes earned big salaries and presents but he always took a share," Saad said."
80% to the tax man, hey don't complain Saad - if Uday was a pimp you'd get 0% for your services. But the soccer team wasn't the only team to feel Uday's scorn:
"There were also reports that after a loss Uday forced the volleyball team, which was made up of taller athletes, to remain in a room he had constructed with a five-foot-high ceiling. He built the room so small that not all of them could sit at the same time. The only way they could fit was by having half of them standing and leaning over while the other half were sitting with their knees in their chests. He considered this a motivational technique. There was always a psychological element to the kind of torture Uday employed. You are supposed to play like tall players, so feel what it is like to be small."
So I nominate Uday for the Legion of Doom, for more SI has an article on-line about the lovable Uday Hussein.
1 comment:
It's really funny how everyone proclaims to know Uday. Did you witness any of these things? If not, you have no business writing about him. He's just a man that a lot of people were jealous of, he had the money, the women and the means. Let him rest in peace!
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