SHAME

(Iran Sports Press): The recent feud between Ali Daei, and Ali Parvin, two of Iran’s best ever football players, has been the headline news in most Iranian papers over the past few days, and it has overshadowed most other stories in Iran. But is this really necessary?

"You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today" Marvin Gaye

Football is a team-sport. Nevertheless, great football players also have big egos. Whether it's the great Johan Cruyff, who at times talks about himself in 3rd person, Franz Beckenbauer, Maradona or Pele, who are not the most humble people on earth, or whether it's Lothar Matthäus or Hans Krankl, who believe they were chosen by God to be the national team coach of their respective country. There's a little narcist, a little Dorian Gray, in most superstar football players.

So what has happened between Ali Daei and Ali Parvin, two of the greatest players in Iran's history, is nothing unusual. Lothar Matthäus is also "character assassinating" Jürgen Klinsmann in the German yellow press. So maybe we shouldn't worry about this soap opera and let it be a normal incident between two historic figures of our football. Should we?

The Answer is no. Sometimes things are not so easy, and this is one of those occasions. Both Daei and Parvin have done too much for Iran that we cant just turn a blind eye to this situation. What Ali Parvin has done for Iran's football and for Perspolis cant be denied. Whether it was during his career as a player, during the war, or when he took over an almost bankrupt club at the verge of closure, leading them to two league titles.

What Ali Daei has done for Iran's football should also be in everyone’s memory. A player that has scored 102 goals for his national team, no matter against whom, a player that put Iran back on the football map, arguably with support of other greats like Khodadad Azizi, Karim Bagheri, Ahmadreza Abedzadeh and Hamid Estili.

No one can deny the achievements of the two men as all time greats of our football and both of these men deserve our respect. But the childish behaviour and childish arguments by both, fuelled by the local press who have turned the situation to something a lot worse than what it started at as, makes the whole issue a sad incident and ruins the legacy of both men.

Why is it that the arguments have to be led at such a low level, only leading into character assassination, bad mouthing each other and building more disparity at a time when Iranians should stay united, for the sake of our football? At a time when our football nation should be concentrating on the upcoming games and uniting to reach the World Cup for only the third time in history, it seems like we might have once again pressed the self-destruct button. Only time would prove how damaging this feud would be to our football, especially after the relative calm in the national team camp over the last few games.

I don't really know what the real issue is between Mr. Parvin and Mr.Daei, I suppose no one does. We can only make a judgement based on what both sides tell us and what is written in the press who tend to spin every news 180 degrees before publishing it.

But this reminds me a bit of Kurosawa's "Rashomon" where a crime is reported by four witnesses and each version is completely different. Why can't it be that instead of playing a scene from "Rashomon" both these men would get more inspiration from Kurosawa's other masterpiece "The magnificent Seven"?

Like it or not, we, as Iranians, like to build up heroes only to destroy them. It has happened time and time again. It's just, let's say not so smart, when the heroes destroy their legacy themselves.

Or to say it in the words of Rodney King: "Why can't we all just get along?"