As the Group Stage in the World Cup progresses, it’s already starting to become clear which are the teams that are going through and which are definitely being knocked out. As the Iranian side is clearly now going home, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on their presence.
The games played in Group B firstly of course remind us of what we already know: that politics can be kept away from sport, and countries whose governments are not friendly towards one another can still see their citizens, as ordinary people, play an international competition in the spirit of the various Greek Games two and a half millennia ago (even if no footballs were present back then…)
FERW calls for precisely this spirit, of keeping politics off the pitch. But it’s for precisely this reason that we would like to pay tribute for the actions of the team before the game started. In their initial match, the team refused to sing the national anthem, it seems as a mark of solidarity with brutal and lethal suppression of their fellow citizens and incarceration and the breaking threat of more to come.
The tactic wasn’t ostentatious. It was subtle. It was also personally brave, given what punishments are being meted out to critics back home, and which the players themselves might now face – and which perhaps was already felt by the time of their second match when the anthem was then sung. Some reports suggest their families have also been threatened. This is not a risk shared with many others who bring politics into the game. And crucially unlike other subjects of protest, theirs is associated with the game itself; in Iran there is considerable controversy over the segregation of women within, or outright exclusion from, stadia.
The team’s protest was discreet, measured, subtle, and directly relevant to the sport and to all its fans. And so on this occasion, it is very much to be applauded. Well played, team, both on and off the pitch; and safe journey home.
