{"id":25474,"date":"2011-06-25T11:52:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-25T15:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=25474"},"modified":"2011-06-25T11:52:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T15:52:00","slug":"libya-unrest-football-stars-defect-to-rebels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=25474","title":{"rendered":"Libya unrest: Football stars defect to rebels"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of 17 leading Libyan football figures have announced their defection to the rebels. \u00a0(Photo: Juma Gtat urged Col Gaddafi “to leave us alone” )<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

They include the nation’s goalkeeper, Juma Gtat, three other national team members, and the coach of Tripoli’s top club al-Ahly, Adel bin Issa.<\/p>\n

Mr Gtat and Mr bin Issa announced the group’s defection to the BBC during a late night meeting in the rebel-held Nafusa Mountains in western Libya.<\/p>\n

It comes on the heels of defections by military officers.<\/p>\n

Propaganda blow<\/p>\n

At their hotel in the town of Jadu I met goalie Juma Gtat relaxing in his room.<\/p>\n

“I am telling Col Gaddafi to leave us alone and allow us to create a free Libya,” he said as we sat on his hotel bed in front of other players.<\/p>\n

“In fact I wish he would leave this life altogether,” he added with a laugh.<\/p>\n

In football-mad North Africa, the defections are clearly a propaganda blow for Col Gaddafi. But he has always resisted any pressure, political or military, to leave office.<\/p>\n

And he has some advantages on the various battlefields in this war across Libya.<\/p>\n

Here, in the rebel-held Western Mountains, in besieged Misrata in the centre, and in the east, the long-time Libyan leader has most of the heavy weapons – such as multiple rocket launchers and tanks.<\/p>\n

The rebels mostly have small machine guns and, in some cases, only ancient rifles.<\/p>\n

The longer-range rockets and artillery at Col Gaddafi’s command mean he can often pin the rebels down to their positions.<\/p>\n

Mr bin Issa, told me he had chosen to come to the Western Mountains “to send a message that Libya should be unified and free”.<\/p>\n

“I hope to wake up one morning to find that Gaddafi is no longer there,” he added.<\/p>\n

Sports stars matter in the battle for public opinion. But the rebels still need to win some decisive military victories if they are to advance.<\/p>\n

In the Western Mountains, they have managed to seize most of the high ground, taking control of a series of towns.<\/p>\n

I have travelled from Wazzin, hard on the Tunisian border, to the rebel stronghold of Jadu.<\/p>\n

Although some of the towns in between have suffered serious attacks, they remain in rebel hands.<\/p>\n

But troops loyal to Col Gaddafi hold the plains and valleys below.<\/p>\n

The colonel also holds the capital, its approaches, and large parts of this mainly desert country.<\/p>\n

So far, most of the attention has of course been on the heavy fighting for coastal cities, where most of Libya’s population live.<\/p>\n

But Col Gaddafi also has arms caches and military units deep in the Sahara Desert – some of which have not yet been deployed.<\/p>\n

By Mark Doyle<\/em> <\/em>BBC World Affairs Correspondent, in Jadu, Libya<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of 17 leading Libyan football figures have announced their defection to the rebels. \u00a0(Photo: Juma Gtat urged Col Gaddafi “to leave us alone” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}