A controversial test match between Canada and Iran has been canceled by the Canadian Football Association. The highly explosive case has long since taken on a political dimension on both sides.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen professional soccer player Sardar Azmoun proudly displays his Iran national jersey
Sardar Azmoun was looking forward to a special trip: At the beginning of June, the professional from Bayer Leverkusen was to play a friendly against Canada with the Iranian national soccer team. Another against Ecuador and a training camp in Canada were planned for Iran, who, like Canada, have qualified for the 2022 World Cup. But the Canadian federation canceled the game against the Iranian selection on Thursday evening European time, creating further political tension between the two countries, which have not had diplomatic relations since 2012.
On the Way to Turkey
Nevertheless, Azmoun and parts of the team traveled to Ankara, where they wanted to apply for a visa at the Canadian embassy. The Iranian team was to come to the Turkish capital in two separate travel delegations to submit the applications. Azmoun belonged to the first group and wrote on Instagram on Friday morning: “Off to Turkey.”
And he also reacted to the cancellation by the Canadian association via Instagram: “I very much regret that this friendly match has been cancelled. I just hope that our future preparatory games for the World Cup will not be affected by the same fate,” wrote the 27 -year-olds. He and his team have become “the game ball of the Canadian Football Association”.
Public pressure in Canada
The Canadian association did not give any specific reasons in its announcement of the cancellation. The main reason, however, is likely to have been the public pressure triggered by protests by relatives of the victims of the 2020 plane downing in Iran. On January 8, 2020, a plane en route to Kyiv was shot down by Iranian forces near Tehran shortly after take-off. Among the 176 people killed on board were 55 Canadian citizens and 30 other residents.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expresses dissatisfaction with the schedule of the friendly
The scheduling of the test match against Iran on June 5, 2022 in Vancouver had therefore caused protests in Canada from the start. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also critical: “I don't think it was a good idea to invite the Iranian football team here to Canada. But the organizers have to explain that,” said the Prime Minister in mid-May.
Calculated scandal?
The Iranian team's trip to Canada has now finally come to an end, as the friendly against Ecuador and the planned training camp had already been canceled before the game against the Canadians. And it was not only in Canada that a cancellation was an immediate issue after the announcement of the appointment on May 12, 2022. Team manager Hamid Estili, on behalf of the Iranian Football Association, emphasized repeatedly and conspicuously that in the event of a refusal by the Canadians, compensation would be demanded. There is a suspicion that the Iranian side could have calculated a rejection from the start.
The Iranian Ministry of Sports reacted quickly after the rejection. The claim by Western states that sport should not be politicized proved absurd with Canada's unilateral rejection, tweeted the Vice Minister for Sport, Sina Kalhor. Iran will take legal action against Canada because of the cancellation and demand damages of ten million US dollars, he announced.
Explosive backgrounds
“Politics should not be mixed up with sport,” Sardar Azmoun wrote on Instagram, emphasizing that one did not deserve to be excluded from major competitions or to have to play for other national teams. “Young people in Iran don't deserve the current situation. Long live the Iranians and Iran,” said Azmoun.
The well-known journalist and activist Masih Alijenad comes from Iran and lives in exile in New York
The well-known journalist and human rights activist Masih Alijenad reacted to this on the social network and addressed Azmoun directly. “Dear Sardar Azmoun, you have defended Soleimani and Khamenei a few times. And, of all things, in the course of the sanctioning of the Revolutionary Guards accompanying the national team on the trip to Canada, you suddenly claim that sport should not be mixed up with politics?” Aliyenad, who lives in exile in America, with reference to the football professional's statements on the General of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, who died in a US attack, and Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini.
Tool of the Iranian regime?
“If there is no political sport, why did you ask for a meeting with the political leaders of the Islamic Republic?” Alienad continued. Explosive is not only her public counter-speech, but also the reference to representatives of the Revolutionary Guards, who were apparently disguised as team members for the Iranian delegation in Canada, and also their own involvement in the topic.
Because she herself was demonstrably kidnapped by the Iranian state. The plans foiled by the FBI had intended to kidnap Alijenad, who lives in New York, on American soil. Team manager Estili, who scored the goal in the 2-1 victory over the USA at the 1998 World Cup in France was revered as a national hero and today is considered a henchman of the Iranian regime due to his close ties to the Revolutionary Guards.
“If there is no political sport, then why does your team manager Hamid Estili appear at the annual banquet hosted by Mahmoud Khazein, the Islamic Republic of Iran security guard who plotted to kidnap an American woman in the US?” wrote Alijenad, seeing Azmoun and the Iran national team as a tool of the Iranian regime rather than a toy of the Canadian FA, like Azmoun. “You and your favorite sport are just a political tool in the hands of the political leaders so that they present themselves – to the world – as a normal regime,” counters Alijenad the Bundesliga professional, who will not be traveling to Canada with his team. but has definitely become the plaything of political interests.