IRAN SCORES OWN GOAL WITH REPRESSION
October 21, 2022 -Durt Fibo

An inchoate but growing collection of Iranian football players and other professional sports figures have requested that FIFA ban their own country –the Islamic Republic of Iran– from participation in the 2022 World Cup. Their demand is a response to ongoing government repression against protests in the country in the name of Mahsa Amini and women’s freedom.

The Iranian group cited in its demand precedents, in which other nations have been suspended in the past for similar violations. A formal communiqué said: “FIFA should not allow the participation of a country that actively persecutes its women, athletes and children in the exercise of the most basic human rights. The FIFA Council can and must immediately suspend Iran “

Although the coming World Cup in Qatar has been a dark stain on the already corroded reputation of FIFA since its inception, the world football confederation is this time, pulling up statutes and rectitude in defense of the players’ stance. Thus far, they have announced that Iranian government’s prevention of women from entering stadiums in Iran breaks FIFA’s own rules (there is no written law in Iran barring women from arenas where men play, but they are customarily refused entry).

FIFA’s written challenge to the theocracy reads: “Iran’s brutality and belligerence towards its own people have reached a turning point, calling for an unequivocal and firm dissociation from football and the world of sport. Women have been constantly denied access to stadiums across the country and have been systematically excluded from football, which is in stark contrast to FIFA values and statutes. If women cannot enter stadiums across the country, the Iranian Football Association is simply following and enforcing government guidelines; they cannot be seen as an independent organization free of any form or type. of influence. This is a violation (article 19) of the FIFA statutes.”

To be clear: these athletes, by intent or as a result of their principles, are confronting their own government and risking their liberty by forcing FIFA to expel a humiliated Iran from the international organization at all levels.