Open Season

In 1998, I stood outside a football stadium in the French city of Lyon but may as well have been in the middle of Tehran.

This was a few hours before one of the most anticipated matches of that World Cup, a clash only football could have conjured, as Iran and the United States were to meet in the same group.

Thanks to FIFA's random draw, international adversaries on the world's political stage were now rivals on the football field.

On that bizarre afternoon, I met a man called Love33, a hippy-like figure dressed like Uncle Sam who had changed his name from something more mundane and showed me his passport to prove it.

I also met college students from across America who drank beer and chanted "USA! USA!" in front of passers by.

They in turn were welcomed by a group of Iranians who had driven to Lyon from Germany, if I recall correctly. They set up a barbecue in a car park and cooked a goat for everyone to eat while blasting music from their van's speakers that turned downtown Lyon into a Tehran nightclub.

This was the World Cup and it was good.

Most observers had considered the Iran-USA game might turn into an ideological showdown between the two sets of fans. That prediction was very wrong. The USA proved a sideshow for Iranians who, outside the ground, kicked off their own game.

Two sets of fans, those of then-President Khatami, a moderate reformer, and those who, shall we say, weren't supporters of taking Iran into the 21st century went at it outside the ground and inside the stadium.

I saw no violence, unlike that I witnessed first-hand between England supporters and the police in St Etienne later in the tournament for no apparent reason, even as political passions seemed set to boil over.

But even as the game got underway – and Iran ultimately triumphed 2-1 over the old enemy – the protestors continued baiting each other from different sections of the Stade Gerland (interestingly, little of this was seen on TV coverage of the game).

So, if someone ever tells you patronisingly that sport and politics don't mix, laugh in their face.

Sport and sports events are a powerful platform for political ideology – just ask those Iranians in Lyon that night as well as players from Iran's national team a week ago.

With their country on the cusp of political implosion, several high-profile players on Iran's national team made the most of their Word Cup qualifier against South Korea last week.

With a massive television audience watching, not just at home but around the world, teammates Ali Karimi, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Hosein Ka'abi, and Vahid Hashemian were among six players who wore green wristbands, the colour adopted by supporters of defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who believe the recent election was stolen.

This gesture by the players, heroes to many Iranians, didn't go down too well in parts of Tehran. Point made, the players removed their wristbands at half-time but team skipper Mahdavikia continued wearing his green captain's armband for the second half.

This was a brave gesture but now the players have been banned from the national team ("retired" according to one report), their passports also confiscated by authorities on their return to Iran. Unconfirmed reports say they've also been banned from talking to media.

Last weekend, Mohsen Safayi Farahani, who was head of Iran's Football Federation under Khatami, was arrested, one of many opposition politicians, journalists, and academics to be detained by the regime of current President Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad is a football fan who attends national team matches at the infamous men-only Azadi Stadium. Last weekend, he compared election protestors to football hooligans.

He is also believed to have ordered coach Ali Daei, a football legend in Iran, be sacked following the national team's poor run in World Cup qualifying (to be fair, he may have had a point).

But now, Ahmadinejad is wishing the team's most well-known players had kept to another script and spoken the usual post-match drivel that comes from footballer's mouths rather than voice their support for peaceful political change in their country.

Sport as a weapon of resistance? Maybe that's making too grand a statement but if you have read this far, Iran's footballers made their point – and got your attention.

Green is their colour.


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