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Sports

FIFA Silent as Footballers, Coaches are Targeted for Political Reasons

April 11, 2023
Payam Younesipour
5 min read
The latest political interference in Iranian sports that we know about is the one-year suspension of Milad Kor, a member of Tabriz Tractor FC and the National Youth Football Team
The latest political interference in Iranian sports that we know about is the one-year suspension of Milad Kor, a member of Tabriz Tractor FC and the National Youth Football Team
FIFA, under the presidency of Gianni Infantino, has been silent about political interference in Iranian football
FIFA, under the presidency of Gianni Infantino, has been silent about political interference in Iranian football
Rahman Rezaei, an assistant coach of Iran’s National Football Team, was expelled after calling for the trial of officials who have committed “murder, theft and crimes”
Rahman Rezaei, an assistant coach of Iran’s National Football Team, was expelled after calling for the trial of officials who have committed “murder, theft and crimes”

In November 2022, the hacktivist group Black Reward attacked the database of Fars News Agency, an affiliate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and claimed to have deleted nearly 250 terabytes of data from the website from its servers and computers.

A day later, the group published two sets of hacked documents. The first set is about Iran’s attempt to stifle protests against the Islamic Republic at the 2022 World Cup in cooperation with Qatar, which hosted the competition; the second set contains the “advice of editors of revolutionary media” to the Iranian Football Federation, which orders the federation to coordinate its actions with the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization to prevent players and coaches of the Iranian National Football Team from expressing solidarity with the nationwide demonstrations.

The documents say that every kind of pressure, financial or otherwise, must be used to keep members of the national team in line. In one document, security and intelligence agencies are told that “any punishment and preventive measure must not be officially announced.”

Evidence shows that these orders have not been rescinded after the World Cup and that footballers and coaches continue to be pressured and punished for stepping over the line set by the security establishment of the Islamic Republic.

IranWire has recently asked FIFA, football’s world governing body, about its response to the harassment of Iranian footballers and coaches, especially members of the National Football Team.

National Football Team’s Coach Fired with a Tweet

On January 19, Fars News Agency reported that “it seems” Rahman Rezaei, an assistant coach recruited by Amir Ghalenoei, the head coach of Iran’s National Football Team, has been removed from the team’s technical staff. On the same day, the newspaper Khabar Varzeshi confirmed the dismissal of Rezaei from the team and claimed he was expelled because he had been “absent from training.”

In a tweet on January 17, Deputy Sports Minister Vahid Yaminpour quoted statements made by Rezaei during the 2022 nationwide protests and called on the football federation to dismiss him from the national team’s technical staff. Rezaei had said that Iranian officials who for 43 years had committed “murder, theft and crimes” must be put on trial. Yaminpour wrote, “Do you think a person who insults the Islamic Republic so brazenly should be trusted to serve under this sacred flag?”

“If the officials of the football federation are done spending the 20,000 dollars that they received as a bonus for the World Cup, they should answer the above question,” Yaminpour said.

Rezaei’s expulsion two days later provided a clear and indisputable example of political interference in Iranian football. Also, what happened to Rezaei was in line with Fars News Agency’s leaked secret bulletin: pressure from outside the football federation on footballers and coaches.

How Long FIFA’s Silence Can last?

On March 6, IranWire asked FIFA to comment on Rezaei’;s expulsion. According to FIFA’s charter, the organization and all its member federations are required to keep their independence from politics and must not allow governments to interfere in their affairs.

IranWire asked FIFA, “Is the sports ministry of a country permitted to expel coaches of its national football team or not?”

Since the start of nationwide protests in September 2022, FIFA has remained silent regarding the repression, arrests and the interference of the Iranian government in the national football federation’s affairs. 

On March 29, however, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed “serious concerns over the past few months vis-à-vis the situation of the Iranian athletes and the Olympic community as a whole in the current context of the upheavals and demonstrations in the country” and urged Iran’s National Olympic Committee to “take appropriate action with the highest authorities to protect the athletes and members of the Olympic community from a humanitarian perspective.” The committee also warned that if the government does not respect the rights of the athletes and continues to enforce restrictions on women athletes, Iran would be banned from the 2024 Olympics.

Latest Political Interference in Football Federation’s Affairs

On April 4, the Islamic Republic’s Football Federation fined Milad Kor, a member of Tabriz Tractor FC and of the National Youth Football Team, 50 million tomans and suspended him for one year.

According to Iranian media, the 19-year-old footballer was punished because of an interview with the newspaper Khabar Varzeshi in which he disclosed problems inside the National Youth Football Team. In the interview, Kor said that Samad Marfavi, the coach, would not allow the players to relax in their hotel’s pool in Uzbekistan after their practices because women were swimming in the same pool. He also revealed that the players had not been paid and that some team members had to take out a loan to buy sports footwear.

Kor’s suspension is another example of the pressures and financial corruption in a federation whose president, according to the documents published by Black Rewards, was chosen by the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Organization.

As IranWire reported in December, Mehadi Taj, president of the football federation, is a former commander of IRGC’s Intelligence Organization in Isfahan and has a very disturbing record of financial corruption. Fars news agency’s confidential bulletin states that Taj, before assuming the presidency of the federation, told IRGC commanders and government officials that “If I had been head of the Football Federation, the issue of women in stadiums would never have arisen.” Also, in the presence of the authorities of the Islamic Republic, he claimed that, because of his good relationship with senior managers of the Asian Football Confederation, he could have prevented pressure on the government regarding women’s presence in stadiums.

On April 5, the Iranian Football Federation claimed that Kor was suspended following complaints by “private plaintiffs,” not because of his interview. 

It took the federation days to come up with this excuse.

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