The Hypocrisy Must Stop

The justifications used by these lobbyists relates to the Iranian president's unfortunate remarks regarding the state of Israel and the Iranian government’s nuclear ambitions. Recent reports suggest that the American president George W Bush and powerful Republican senator John McCain have engaged in “secret” meetings to forward a resolution and urging FIFA to impose a ban on the Iranian team’s right to participate in the World Cup. Today, according to Reuters, “EU lawmakers seek to ban Iran from the World Cup.” As a citizen of the EU, and strong believer of democratic values, I urge the politicians that I voted in to the EU parliament to stop the hypocrisy. It is not right to mix sports with politics. What have the Iranian people, everyday citizens, done to deserve this?

Why would these so called crusaders of freedom stand in the way of progress of young Iranian athletes who have devoted their entire lives and careers for this once in a life time opportunity to pursue fame and glory? What exactly is the justification of wanting to ban Iran? Is it because they might someday develop nuclear weapon although the IAEA has not found any evidence of such developments? Even if there would be such developments, shouldn’t these concerned citizens of the free world work hard to impose such bans on the likes of India, Pakistan and Israel - other countries from Iran’s region - who have gone against world opinion and developed nuclear weapons?

If the justification relates back to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comment about the destruction of Israel, as unfortunate as they may seem in the ears of EU politicians, surely, action must speak louder than words. Why are countries with the worst human right records like China (who refuses to acknowledge Taiwan as an independent nation and has threatened military actions against the “Chinese Taipei” on more than one occasion) is being awarded with the inconceivable honor of hosting the 2008 Olympic games? How come the EU is still one of Iran’s main trading partners and yet would like to ban her team who has earned its right to participate in the World Cup?

EU has for long pretended to be a crusader of freedom but its lawmakers seem to have no difficulty to go out of their way to hurt the innocent, peaceful and hardworking Iranian people. What exactly are they hoping that an eventual ban will accomplish?

Mr. McCain and president Bush should rather concentrate on the mess that they have created in Iraq, they should be concerned about their poor human rights record in an unlawful place such as Guantanamo Bay rather than concerning themselves with “soccer”.

No country is perfect and it would be easy to turn around and ask for the USA team’s exclusion from the FIFA World Cup because of their brutal and - in the eyes of many free citizens of the world - unjustified occupation of Iraq but as said, it is not appropriate to mix sports with politics.

The FIFA World Cup is a sporting event, where 32 teams have earned their rights to participate. The tournament is not called the ‘FIFA World Cup of Democratic and Non nuclear nations’. For some, the names of various participants can seem uncomfortable but it is not for the EU politicians and George Bush to decide who has the right to participate. When Germany was honoured with hosting the world cup (and Iran casting its vote in favour of Germany), it pledged to the world that she would be an excellent host. Germany should remain true to that pledge and welcome the Iranian team with open arms. If Germany or any other nation for that matter, is not comfortable with accepting participants who have earned their right to take part in such a global event, then they should have never applied to host such an event in the first place.

Once every four years the FIFA World Cup brings the world together in one big show of humanity, excellence, companionship and friendship. Lets not allow politicians, from either side of the scale, to take that away from us.