Iran’s
national soccer team has historically been viewed as a representative of the
country’s people, not of the
Islamic Republic’s government.
اضافة اعلان
Team Melli, as the
squad is known, has been embraced as an apolitical force, and as a secular
passion that reflected a certain ideal, the Iran of everyone’s imagination. For
years, the team has brought unity and joy to a fractious nation. Support for it
has been effectively unconditional.
Until now.
As the World Cup in
Qatar approaches, the first time the world’s biggest sporting event has been
held in the
Middle East, the Iranian team finds itself in an unfamiliar,
polarizing position.
Team Melli has
become ensnared in the internal politics of Iran, where a continuing national
uprising led by women and young people is demanding an end to clerical rule,
and seeking more equitable treatment and increased personal freedoms. The
protests were spurred by the mid-September death in police custody of Mahsa
Amini, 22, a young woman who had been arrested by the morality police in
Tehran, the Iranian capital, on charges of violating a law requiring head
coverings for women.
Some activists
inside and outside Iran have called for FIFA, soccer’s governing body, to
prohibit Iran from competing in the World Cup. They cite the government’s
crackdown on protesters, limited stadium access for women to watch matches, and
more overtly political complaints, like Iran’s providing weaponized drones to
Russia to aid its invasion of Ukraine.
A ban seems highly
unlikely:
FIFA recently sent a letter to all World Cup teams and their
federations, urging them to focus on soccer ahead of politics. But support for
Team Melli is now divided even at home in this emotional and visceral moment,
analysts, fans, journalists, and former coaches and players said.
The divide was
clear in the wounded voice of Jalal Talebi, 80, who coached his native Iran at
the 1998 World Cup in France, where he guided Team Melli to its most important
victory ever, against the US. (Iran is again in the same first-round group as
the US in Qatar.) Talebi called soccer “part of life” in an interview, but said
that he supported the protests and believed it was “not the time” to
participate in the World Cup. He said he may decline to serve as a commentator
for international television, and may not even watch Iran’s games from his home
in the Bay Area, in the US.
“How could I feel
to watch football when my neighbor, my brother, my countryman, and countrywoman
are in such a bad situation?” Talebi said.
Mohammad Motamedi,
44, a popular Iranian vocalist, was chosen to be Team Melli’s official singer
for this World Cup but declined, writing on his Instagram page, “under the
circumstances, I don’t even feel like talking, let alone singing.”
Even players in the
national team appear divided on whether, or how forcefully, they should show
support for the protesters.
According to a
report on Twitter and Telegram by an independent journalist in Iran, the team’s
star forwards, Sardar Azmoun and Mehdi Terami, got into a heated argument in
September at a training camp in Austria. The dispute reportedly took place
after Azmoun posted on Instagram that “national team rules” suppressed players
from expressing their views about the national protests, while also saying that
he was willing to “sacrifice” his place in the World Cup “for one hair on the
heads of Iranian women.” Azmoun briefly scrubbed his Instagram feed, and then
resumed with more circumspect postings.
Analysts said that
some fans had accused players of being co-opted by the government, their
loyalty secured with real estate deals and imported luxury cars. Others accused
the players of appearing insensitive at the Austrian training camp in the days
after the death of Amini, by celebrating too excitedly after an exhibition
victory against Uruguay and holding a 30th birthday party for goalkeeper
Alireza Beiranvand.
“The excitement and
joy we always felt for soccer and the World Cup is nonexistent this time
around,” said Amir Ali, 54, an engineer in Tehran, who asked that his last name
not be used. “We don’t care, and some people say if Team Melli loses, it’s a
defeat for the regime.”
Those more
sympathetic to the players note that they are undoubtedly facing enormous
pressure — and perhaps even threats from the government — not to side publicly
with the protesters as they seek to advance their careers in a tournament held
once every four years. Their concentration will surely be tested. And their
every move will continue to be heavily scrutinized.
Players, though,
may be growing more emboldened. On November 7, the powerful club team
Esteghlal, which includes several prospective World Cup players, won Iran’s
Super Cup, but Amir Arsalan Motahari, who scored the winning goal, did not
celebrate. Instead, he shed a tear captured in a photograph. Another player,
Mehdi Ghayedi, wrote the name of a young fan who was shot and killed by security
forces in the northern city of Babol on his jersey.
Afterward,
Esteghlal’s players kept their arms somberly crossed during the trophy
ceremony. The team’s official Twitter page declared that “no one is happy”
above a video of the muted postgame ceremony.
One player, Siavash
Yazdani, told Iranian broadcast media that it was “a bitter victory during
bitter times” and dedicated the match “to the women of Iran and the families of
all the victims”.
A day later, Azmoun, the Team Melli star, posted “the honorable
Esteghlal” on his Instagram page with a blue heart, the team color, against a
black screen of mourning.
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