In case you have not heard about it, this past week, FIFA, Football/Soccer’s world governing body suspended IRAN from all international footballing matches. In the immediate case, this means that Iran will NOT be able to compete in the Asian Games in DOHA, a tournament which they’ve championed three times in their history.
The reason is because of a dispute within the Iranaian Football Federation and the Iranian government. To be more precise, Iran was suspended from international soccer by FIFA on Thursday because of government interference with the country’s soccer federation.
Now, i will not detail all this for you, but you can read about it in a very detailed article. However, it is incredibly disappointing to see this decision by FIFA, considering the double standard it shows. I assure you, that IRAN is NOT the only country who’s government has at one time or another interfered with its’ football federation. This to me and many others smacks of a political motivation. This is FIFA, the same organization who claims to stand for pure atheltics and yet at one point before the last world cup pondered the idea of suspending Iran from the world cup, because of the ongoing Nuclear issue. Non-political indeed!
Anyways, Kaveh Mahjoob has an excellent commentary on this issue, i will give you a few quotes:
From a procedural perspective, FIFA’s decision to suspend Iran’s football from the international scenes due to its government interference has merit. Sports need to be independent from politics and individual football federations need to remain independent. Conversely, the international governing body of football, FIFA, must also stay pure from politics.
From a wider perspective, in examining the world of football, FIFA’s decision lacks consistency and seems politically motivated.
In many countries outside of Europe, the governments own infrastructures such as stadiums and clubs. As a result, the governments effectively run all sports including football. Why is it that the Iranian government interfering with its football federation is suddenly “suspension” material and why is it that FIFA deciding to make example of Iran? Answering these questions require deeper analysis.
In Saudi Arabia, a member of the royal family is the head of the football federation. Are we to believe that the hands of governements are nowhere to be seen in football federations in Saudi Arabia, most of Asia, African countries, Eastern Europe and Central America?
Going further he says,
FIFA uses “Fair Play” as means to get cultures closer and provide opportunity to developing nations. “Fair Play” also should mean treating all football nations the same.
My simple question to Mr. Joseph S. Blatter and the members of the FIFA Emergency Committee is: Do you use the same measuring sticks to evaluate ALL of your members or is it just more convenient to pick on a football federation whose government is facing significant political pressure throughout the world?
And i will bring up the same point as Mr. Mahjoob does. Who does FIFA intend to punish with this? the governement? NO. It will be the people. This is a country that is brought together under the flag of its nation’s football team. A country who when it has risen against the oppression of its governement, it has been after nation-uniting victories on the football pitch. A country whose brave women have resisted humiliation and oppression to simply have the right to attend matches.
Good Job FIFA.
[tags] fifa, iran, football, soccer, suspesion, asian games, IFF, world [/tags]
3 Comments
November 29, 2006 at 7:08 am
[...] Iran Suspended By Fifa Loopy [...]
December 7, 2006 at 4:23 pm
You have to read this article…can it be true??
http://futbolininkas.blogspot.com/2006/11/transcript-of-mahmoud-ahmadinejads.html
February 19, 2007 at 4:04 pm
this is so harsh on iran.they should not be treated like this anymore.This is not a fair trial.i think fifa should re-think their strategy on banning teams.