Official government website of the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 
The main session of the sports fanaticism conference held at the university yesterday, Wednesday, 27/3/1440 A.H., which was chaired by Dr. Abdul Azim Al-Otaibi, Head of the Department of Physical Education at the university, discussed the topic "The role of organizations and the media in reducing sports fanaticism." Dr. Ali Al-Jafri, professor at the College of Education at Jeddah University, Mr. Adel Al-Zahrani, Assistant Undersecretary for Media and Relations at the General Sports Authority and Executive Director of the Saudi Sports Media Federation, and Mr. Faisal Al-Jaffen, sports media, discussed the relationship between the phenomenon of sports fanaticism and its relationship with media outlets and attempts to improve the performance of the sport
At the beginning of the session, Al-Jafri talked about sports fanaticism as the scourge of stadiums, stressing that it is caused by a lack of awareness and insufficient knowledge of the true meanings of sports competition, in addition to "selfish" self-love that does not accept criticism and listening to other points of view, and the rapid influence of non-purposeful media through the columns of fanatical writers, and putting private interest over public interest.
Al-Jafri explained that the issue of intolerance exists and is widespread among us, and we must not close our eyes to it, and the media is part of intolerance, although it is the most prominent in igniting and shaping intolerance, but it is not the only cause of it, as the behavior of fans in stadiums is one of the most important reasons for the spread of intolerance.
For his part, Al-Zahrani said: The Council of Ministers has directed several entities, including the Sports Authority, the Audiovisual Media Authority, the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Interior, the King Abdullah Center for National Dialogue, the Ministry of Education and the Dialogue Center, to raise awareness and research and study this phenomenon.
Al-Zahrani emphasized that the sports media is part of the issue and will in the future be part of the solution after the decision to establish the Sports Media Union, which was established in 2018, by a decision of the Council of Ministers, noting that His Excellency Counselor Turki Al-Sheikh, President of the General Sports Authority, directed the formation of the Board of Directors and the adoption of the Basic Council, and the Board of Directors was formed with diverse media expertise, and work began and there are media sanctions that have been applied, some of which were announced and some were not announced, so defamation is not intended.
Al-Zahrani said: "We assessed the current situation and the situation was not good before, some of our youth are aware, but we have a negative voice that is loud in communication sites, calling on positive voices to speak the truth so that negative voices do not dominate the situation, as fanaticism is a scourge and not related to a large percentage of society."
He added: "What we are currently witnessing is not fanaticism. Fanaticism is innocent of many of the accusations that are thrown at it. Those who curse and swear are not because they are sports fanatics, but because they are accustomed to it through their upbringing and this is due to their behavior in society, announcing the establishment of a training program to qualify and train media professionals and an academic track for sports media to create a new media generation that will lead sports public opinion in the future.
Al-Zahrani revealed that the Saudi Sports Media Federation is in the process of creating a student trainee card so that students can practice media without restrictions, pointing out the importance of encouraging youth in this field. He also stressed that if a sports media person appears without a license, there is an agreement between the Audiovisual Media Commission and the Sports Media Federation with a fine of up to 10 million riyals.
He also talked about the existence of those who believe that fanaticism is a product of society, and that Saudis are not more fanatical than others, the reality says that last week there is a match between two teams from Argentina that caused a great controversy in sports and outside the stadium and was postponed and moved from its home to another because of sports fanaticism, and also the issue of the Spanish league and the intolerance of Catalonia and its demand for separation, which is due to the issues between Real Madrid and Barcelona led to these demands, so we do not wrong ourselves, fanaticism exists everywhere in the world, but what solutions we need to advance football and follow up and develop it.
He added that many blame the media and social media celebrities for the causes of fanaticism, and this is true, but if the recipient rejected the work of this fanatic, they would not be in this form, this is evidence that some society still demands fanaticism, and some of them demand to defend their team and point out the grievances, indicating that if there were no applause for this merchandise, it would not exist, indicating that this percentage has begun to disappear. Now many things that were hidden to society have been discovered, and we have learned that many media professionals work in a "directive" manner to cover the mistakes of the clubs' boards of directors, and this is what has been proven with conclusive evidence to the fans, but there are loud voices that these people have deceived the fans for a long time and must be removed from the sports center, and we admit in all of this issue that some fans are the ones who show these cacophonous voices.
