Saboog and family are conspicuous by their absence (Feature)

By Peter Auf der Heyde Jan 22, 2011, 6:01 GMT

Doha - Saboog and her family Zkriti, Tranaa, Freha and Tmbki are hardly to be seen in Qatar these days.

Named after different locations in Qatar, the family of five jerboas - which is a desert-dwelling hopping rodent found throughout Asia and Northern Africa - provides the official mascots of the 17th Asian Cup.

You would expect to see them on caps, on T-Shirts, on mugs, on pens, on stickers, on keyrings - practically on anything that could be sold.

When they were launched last year, the CEO of the local organizing committee Saud Abdulaziz Al Mohannadi said: 'The mascot is a vital key to the success.'

They are, of course, not totally invisible as the family of five make cameo appearances at some of the games and on billboards in front of the stadiums.

Surprisingly, they are not to be seen on any merchandising.

However, not only are Saboog and her family conspicuous by their absence, the caps, T-shirts, mugs, pens, stickers, keyrings and everything else are missing too as there is virtually no Asian Cup merchandise on sale.

But while some purists might see it as a return to the good old days when football and football players were what made the game, it seems that this is not the reason why nothing is on sale.

Repeated attempts in the last few days by journalists to get either the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) or the local organizing committee (LOC) to explain the virtual absence of all kinds of merchandise has drawn blanks.

The two bodies are playing the blame-game and are saying it is the fault of the AFC's marketing agent, World Sport Group (WSG). Both have also promised to get a comment from the WSG, but none has been forthcoming.

At Friday's media briefing, the AFC Director of Competitions Tokuaki Suzuki said that merchandising was the responsibility of WSG and they needed to explain its absence.

'They should have provided merchandising and I can't say why it is not available. We can only try to get an explanation from them,' he said.

LOC director Jassim Al Romaihi agreed with Suzuki, but went a step further and said that a WSG representative was present and could be addressed after the meeting.

The unnamed representative, however, said that she was not in a position to comment, but would pass all requests on to her headquarters in Singapore.

Journalist Colin Pereira, who was wearing a cap from the 2007 Asian Cup, which was co-hosted by Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, said that he found it astonishing that there was no merchandise on sale.

'This is my third Asian Cup tournament and there has always been merchandising. Caps and T-shirts and other stuff and football fans have bought it.'

Qatar, which is considered a shopper's paradise, provides several ideal venues where official merchandise could be sold. The oil-rich Gulf state has a number of high-end shopping malls as well as traditional local markets.

The only company that seems interested in cashing-in on the Asian Cup is sportswear company Nike, which provides the official match ball and displays and sells it in a Nike store in the Villaggio shopping mall.

But priced at close to 150 dollars, the Nike Total 90 Tracer Asian Cup 2011 Ball is not your normal article that football fans would buy as a memorabilia.

On match-day a few scattered street-sellers along the roads that lead to the stadiums have flags on offer, but nothing else. The stadiums, which should be a hub of activity, are also not being used to sell merchandise.

But it seems that all is not lost for football fans who are worried about having to leave Qatar empty-handed, as Al Romaihi has some consolation to offer disappointed football fans who have been unable to buy a memento of the Asian Cup in Qatar.

'We will try to reach an agreement with WSG to give something to the people at least as a memory free of charge,' he told journalists on Friday.

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