Football On A Holy Day? Some Cry “Foul!”

Never before has a football match caused such controversy in Iran.

The storm started when officials realized that a World Cup match between Iran and South Korea in the 2018 Qualifying Games would take place on October 11 in Tehran. This year, October 11 coincides with the 9th day of the month of Muharram in the Islamic lunar calendar. Muharram is a sacred month for all Muslims, but Shia Muslims consider the 9th day (called Tasu'a) and the 10th day (called Ashura) especially holy. On those two days in 680 AD, the Umayyad Caliph Yazid I sent his armies to destroy the third Shia imam Hossein, who was also the grandson of Islam’s prophet Mohammad, along with his followers.

Now prominent Iranian clergy are incensed, including Ayatollahs Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani and Mohammad Yazdi. On September 20, Ayatollah Golpayegani, a member of the Assembly of Experts, issued a message deploring the timing of the match and demanding that it be changed. He said that the timing would “desecrate” the holy days of Tasu'a and Ashura, and was part of an American conspiracy and an agenda laid out by a Zionist-Arabian-British lobby at FIFA to win the faithful away on those days. He said that when people go to a stadium to watch a game, or watch it at home on TV, mosque attendance goes down. He warned sports officials that they had better disregard the FIFA schedule or face an unpleasant future.

Following this outburst, Sports Minister Mahmoud Goodarzi ordered Mehdi Taj, President of the Iranian Football Federation, to talk to FIFA and reschedule the game. FIFA agreed that the match could take place one day before Tasu'a, but only if South Korea agreed.

But South Korea did not agree. They said that they had finalized their travel arrangements two months earlier and that, in any case, the schedule had been set by FIFA four years ahead of time.

Then, on Sunday, October 2, Ayatollah Yazdi, a former chief of Iran’s judiciary and the current head of the influential Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, dedicated a press conference to attacking President Rouhani’s government. His main complaint concerned a music concert in Qom, but he also found time to give a thumbs-down to the scheduled game. He asked the sports minister to cancel the game and reminded him that he owed his position to the Islamic Republic and those holy days.

A “Medieval” Worldview

On September 26, a group of 56 MPs asked the sports ministry to change the date. It seems no official dared to contradict the ayatollahs except Ali Motahari, deputy speaker of the parliament. Motahari is a conservative but regularly acts as a thorn in the side of hardliners. On Monday October 3, he sent a letter to Ayatollah Yazdi accusing him of turning people away from religion. “You remind one of the actions by the medieval Catholic Church which made Europeans turn their backs on religion,” he wrote.

“There can be no doubt it would have been better if the game had been rescheduled,” Motahari wrote, “but now that it cannot be done, it seems that too much sensitivity towards this issue can be considered anti-religion propaganda.” He reminded Yazdi that on the same day in 1999 Iran had had a match with China, and that nobody had said anything and that spectators had “behaved admirably.”

Then Motahari went a step further and criticized the idea that joy is forbidden during Muharram and Safar, the 2nd month of the Islamic lunar calendar. “This point of view prevents people from marrying during [those two months],” he wrote, “and the price is hundreds and thousands of sinful acts that follow because the young people have to postpone marriage...Surely Imam Hossein would be happier [if people could marry].”

Mehdi Taj, head of the football federation, dodged further controversy by announcing that he had referred the decision to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Then he reported that the council had approved the date. President Rouhani presides over the council, whose members include Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani, Rouhani’s advisor Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, former Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani, and Foreign Minister Zarif. The council’s decisions require the approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Spectators Should Chant “Imam Hossein!”

Meanwhile, sports officials have been busy trying to find ways to mollify opponents of the match. Amir Abedini, a member of the board of directors of Iran’s Football Federation, recommended that after Iran scores its first goal the spectators should chant “Imam Hossein!” three times. His suggestion met with a series of humorous and derisive responses in cyberspace and on social networks.

“If somebody scores a goal against Korea on Tasu’a and brings joy to the people he must be executed for insulting the sacred,” one social media user wrote. Another wrote that if an Iranian player scores a goal against Iran, “he would be given the key to the harem of nymphs in heaven,” wrote another.

The Iranian Football Federation also asked its South Korean counterpart to tell South Korean spectators to leave behind the paraphernalia that they usually bring to football matches support their team. South Korean spectators typically come to games with large balloons to rub together in unison and drums to play when the game becomes exciting or their team scores.

The most contentious point, however, is their team color: red. In Shia tradition, red is associated with the villainous figure of Shemr, one of Yazid’s generals, whose army destroyed Imam Hossein and his followers. Now, there are reports that Iranian sports officials are going to offer South Korean fans black shawls to cover their red outfits.

The federation has also invited celebrity “eulogists,” who are popular singers among religious Iranians, to perform at the stadium and counter the idea that football festivities are denigrating Islam and the two holy days.

The game promises to prove quite a spectacle -- and a memorable one for the Koreans.