Iranian Players Banned

In a story that The Original Winger brought to my attention, The Guardian is reporting that 4 Iranian soccer players have received lifetime bans for wearing green wristbands in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi in last Wednesday's World Cup qualifying match against South Korea.

The four banned players are captain Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Karimi, Hosein Ka'abi and Vahid Hashemian. Karimi is arguably their best player - he has been capped 111 times with Iran and has played for Bayern Munich. He was the only player to wear the green bands on both his wrists.

All the players took their wristbands off at halftime, apparently on orders from some higher up.

There were two more players who wore wristbands during the game, but there's no word on whether they're being punished. By no means am I wishing harm on them, but it seems unfair that only some players are subject to this ban.

Also, if Iran had beaten South Korea to keep their qualification hopes alive, I wonder if any of this would've happened. According to the article in The Guardian, "the national team coach Ali Daei was sacked [this year], reportedly on Ahmadinejad's orders, after a 2-1 home defeat by Saudi Arabia." If he has done it to coaches before, I don't see what would stop him from doing it to players who have underperformed in his eyes, even if they are his country's best players. Them wearing the green wristbands give him more of a justification to do so.