England vs Iran, England asked to boycott FIFA World Cup 2022 opening and “refuse to give Iran worldwide stage”
In six weeks’ time, England encounters Iran in their World Cup opener at Khalifa International Stadium. The quadrennial dream of success will come alive once again, the nation spent by the same old expectations. England asked to boycott FIFA World That explains why Sara, wishes that Gareth Southgate’s team would be more like Poland. Football World Cup fans can buy England Vs USA Tickets from our website.
That England kick off against Iran, in a group also containing Wales and the United States, adds another layer of complexity. Another reason to pause and consider. How intrinsically linked football’s power brokers are with approximately of the planet’s most inimical countries. But there must be no escaping the questions and anxieties around a tournament tainted by discrimination.
Iran is not newbies – this will be their fifth arrival in the past seven World Cups – but this time the circumstances, during an uprising and widespread condemnation, are widely different. It may not be deafening but there are calls for a republic ruled by a regime that has oppressed women for decades to be expelled. Calls that FIFA president Gianni Infantine is ignoring.
morality police
If players and a football association are strongminded come across as being socially aware are serious about their standing. She believes they should refuse to face the team of a nation in which half the population is oppressed, and banned from present games. And facing violent retribution should they step outside the draconian rules of the morality police.
When Poland’s national team said they would refuse to express Russia in the playoffs in early spring because of Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine, it pressured UEFA to ban the previous World Cup hosts. It is not going to occur but. Sara argues, imagine the global impact of the biggest tournament in the world’s most popular sport being rocked by a boycott in the name of human rights. Football World Cup fans can buy England Football World Cup Tickets from our website.
“Poland made FIFA reason about it,” she says. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have expelled Russia. Unity would mean a lot to us, it would make FIFA take action”.
“One thing we would really ask for the English FA is not to play against the government team, one of the key figures behind the Open Stadiums group and speaking under a pseudonym due to care concerns, refuse to give them a global stage because they are torturing and killing their own people”.
“The World Cup also means lots of money, this regime will obtain millions for playing. That’s not going to the players or for grassroots, it will be going to the government for propaganda.”Speaking for almost an hour on a secure link from Iran, and on the disorder of anonymity, Sara is brutal in her assessment of the situation. The Open Stadiums group last month wrote an open letter to Infantine, accusing him of “empty arguments and promises.” She bristles at memories of the FIFA president visiting Tehran and pretending all is fine at a time of relative constancy in the capital.
MAHSA AMINI
Now the Islamic republic faces its latest uprising following the death last month of Mahsa Amini in ethics police custody. There can be no legitimate excuse.
Pardon, they say that Iranian women face “daily harassment, arbitrary detention, torture, and other ill-treatment” because of covering laws. Amani’s crime? Wearing her hijab too loosely. The 22-year-old was taken to a Tehran prison where many women have been brought for protesting outside stadiums or trying to defy bans to gain entry.
Sara last witnessed a willing in 2019, the 14-0 win against Cambodia in which the Iranian FA allowed 3,000 women to attend in a segregated section. She fears for any compatriot who has achieved to get a ticket to a game in Qatar. She is certain that the regime’s clandestine agents will be present in Doha. Monitoring behavior and being ready to intervene should any protests occur.
They were there in Russia four years ago, informing Russian police about possible protestors in Kazan. That particular episode led to women being taken to a secluded room and facing humiliating body searches. At least one, Sara says, was hurt when having a flag confiscated.
Every supporter going to Qatar will need to install the following app on their phones to gain entry. It is meant to act as a Covid-19 passport, featuring vaccination status and resistance to a negative test, but for the few Iranians who will make the trip. There is fear about it being surreptitiously used to monitor their whereabouts at all times. Football World Cup fans can buy England Vs Iran Tickets from our website.
FIFA’S INSISTENCE
Listening to Sara explain the shocking reality of life for a woman in Iran, it is hard not to ask fresh questions about FIFA’s insistence that this is a game for everyone.
How could it be when Infantine is unwilling to act against a federation that distinguishes against half the population? The focus has become far more intense following the death in police custody of Amini. Whose death has led to sustained protests across most of the country and a projected 130 demonstrators being killed?
But the non-reaction of national team players has twisted many of their own fans against them. It took more than two weeks following the death of Amini for any actor to speak out and when the onward Sardar Azmoun wrote “Long live Iranian women” on his Instagram page he quickly deleted the post – allegedly after warnings from officials – and apologized.
Then there was the curious case of their welcoming Senegal in Austria. When the national anthem was played the Iran players stood wearing black jackets that covered the badge on their shirts. It was immediately framed as a brave show of unity with the protestors but, Sara says, that is not true.
“It’s a PR story that was copied and pasted by western media,” she says. “That was humorous for us in Iran. They didn’t have any other jackets. It was their only jacket. It wasn’t a protest.”
The view of many protestors is that the side is the regime and the players are unwilling to step out of line even if their status offers some protection. Four days before the Senegal game they had a birthday party after beating Uruguay 1-0. Which was seen as an enormous act of disrespect while their homeland tore itself apart.
“People don’t want them to protest, they want them to just show unity,” Sara says. “If you go and protest on the street you’ll be treated the same as other people. But what made people hurt is they didn’t write a word on social media for 15 days. There was no reaction, even online. That hurt people. Players have some immunity, they are big names.”
SARA HAS SEEN
Sara has seen morsels of progress in the past only for the rank quo to resume. That 2019 game against Cambodia signaled hope even if there was always a sense of it being another PR exercise.
It happened following the death of the Blue Girl, an Esteghlal fan who set this woman on fire outside a Tehran courthouse, and renewed pressure on FIFA. Who then rested on the Iranian federation. But a rise in civil unrest, the shooting down of a passenger plane in January 2020, and the pandemic stalled hopes of further developments.
When a group of women (2,000 had been given tickets) tried to watch the fixture with Lebanon in the ultra-conservative city of. Mashhad in March of this year video footage showed them being brutally attacked by police when annoying to gain entry.
FIFA ASKED
Open Stadiums had written a warning to FIFA in advance of the game; they received no reply. After the event FIFA asked the Iranian federation to explain what happened. It is indistinct whether a response was received.
This August a group of women was hand-selected to join a first league game. Esteghlal and Mes Kerman, since 1979 but the latest uprising is another roadblock to equality.
Even on those rare occasions women are allowed to attend, in small statistics, and segregated from men. Sara says they are pre-picked by officials and not members of the general public.
So when Harry Kane and the other captains of European finalists walk out with their One Love armbands – a gesture so inoffensive that it is offensive to those it purports to support – in stadiums where thousands of underpaid migrant workers perished. Sara and many other Iranian women viewing from a distance may be forgiven for laughing at the absurdity of it all.
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