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.

Asian Qualifying and the World Cup

The last few days have seen some interesting stories unfold as four teams punched their tickets to the World Cup next summer. Among these stories, we saw Australia complete their qualifying campaign by beating Japan (who also qualified) 2-1. That goal was the first the Socceroos conceded in all 8 qualifying games from this round of qualifying, a remarkable statistic. We learned that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain would feature in a two-legged playoff for the right to play New Zealand, with the winner earning a spot in the next World Cup. There were two stories, however, which are much more significant both to the soccer world and political world.

First, I turn my attention to Iran and the political situation there at the moment. I'm sure many people heard about the green wristbands that several Iranian players wore to show their apparent support of opposition candidate Mir Hossain Mousavi in a qualifying match against South Korea on Wednesday. Team captain Mehdi Mahdavikia (remember him as the man who scored the goal that knocked the United States out of the 1998 World Cup?) wore a green band, and Ali Karimi wore green bands on both of his wrists, among others. The players only wore them in the first half, seemingly ordered to take them off at halftime.

This was a risky thing for all these players to do. To me, its seems the Iranian protests in Tehran most notably have succeeded because there are so many people participating. There are no individuals, just a collective group protesting together. These soccer players are singling themselves out on a world stage (albeit, together, but they're still easy to identify) for all to see. It's a bold move, and for that I commend them. More importantly, for the players at least, Iran drew 1-1 with South Korea, which knocked them out of the World Cup and sent South Korea through instead.

Second, the North Korean national soccer team qualified for the 2010 World Cup this past week with a 0-0 draw over Saudi Arabia. This is their first World Cup appearance since the 1966 World Cup in England where they finished 8th. Even more notably, Kim Jong-Il will have a reason to travel to South Africa is he so chooses or is allowed to. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the national team of this socialist country next summer.