World Cup scandals: Iranian and Tunisian national teams are questionable
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Three weeks before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, there is still no final clarity on which teams will take part in the tournament. The teams of Iran and Tunisia are in question. The government of the Arab country agrees to pay fans for positive feedback about the upcoming competition. “MK” understands what other new scandals can overshadow this already spoiled football holiday.
It’s amazing how much negativity one of the most anticipated events in world sport can cause. The World Cup in Qatar continues to set more and more new records for the number of scandals. Not so long ago, MK wrote about various protest actions by human rights organizations that criticize the treatment of migrant workers and people with a non-traditional orientation. Now the list of teams participating in the tournament is also in question. The most likely candidates for exclusion are the national teams of Tunisia and Iran.
Questions about the Tunisian national team arose due to state interference in the activities of the national football federation. FIFA is very strict in ensuring that football associations are independent. And there have already been precedents in history when such sanctions were applied – among the latest suspension of membership in FIFA Zimbabwe and Kenya. Nigeria suffered the same fate in 2014.
The possibility of the removal of the Tunisian national team from the 2022 World Cup, in particular, was written by the French Le Parisien. The International Football Federation sent an official letter to the Tunisian federation asking for the necessary explanations. The fact is that the Minister of Youth and Sports of the country, Kamel Degish, said that he could dissolve the local football federation. If explanations are not received within the prescribed period or FIFA considers them insufficient, then Tunisia will not go to Qatar.
As for Iran, everything is much more complicated here. FIFA has long-standing claims to the Islamic Republic. Back in March 2018, the president of this organization, Gianni Infantino, during a visit to Tehran, witnessed mass arrests of women by local police before a football match. Infantino was outraged by what he saw and promised to deal with the situation. However, this has not been done – Iran continues to ignore numerous requests to revise the law prohibiting women from going to football matches.
A new round of tension was caused by the death of an Iranian girl, Maskhi Amini, on September 16, 2022. She was arrested for inappropriate appearance, and two days later she died in the hospital. This tragedy led to massive protests in Iran. It even got to the point that some players of the Iranian national team wrote a letter to FIFA with a request to exclude their country from the World Cup in Qatar. The situation was aggravated by the arrest of the Spanish fan Santiago Sanchez, who made a foot trip to the World Cup. He ended up in an Iranian prison after visiting the grave of Amini in the city of Sekkez and stopped communicating from October 2.
Undoubtedly, fuel was added to the fire of this scandal by the demands of the Ukrainian Football Federation to exclude the Iranian team for allegedly providing assistance to Russia in holding the NWO by the country’s leadership. In addition to these accusations, the letter received by FIFA mentions human rights violations and the UN Security Council resolution on sanctions imposed on Iran.
The high probability of such a decision is also recognized in Iran. Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi even said he would contact the Qatari government, as the expulsion would be a devastating blow to the football-loving country.
If Tunisia and Iran still do not take part in the tournament, then the first on the list of replacements is the Italian team, according to the rules of the competition. It occupies the highest, sixth, place in the world ranking among unqualified teams. And can get either into group A to England, Wales and the USA, or into group D to France, Denmark and Australia.
The second team that could end up in Qatar if Iran and Tunisia are disqualified is the Colombian team, which is in 17th place in the ranking.
Do not leave hope to go to Qatar and Ukrainians, insisting that they simply must be at this world football festival.
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It is unlikely that the government of Qatar, when applying for the organization of the World Cup, foresaw what a wave of hate it would face. On October 25, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, was forced to give a long television interview in which he explained how much his country had done to prepare the tournament, what changes had taken place in national legislation, and how difficult it was for such a small country to host this competition. Now the country has to make urgent efforts to improve its own image in the eyes of the world community.
Qatar’s Supreme Committee for World Cup Heritage (SC) on October 31 confirmed a report by a Dutch broadcaster about paying for flights and accommodation to a group of 50 Dutch fans for agreeing to write positive comments on social media about the 2022 World Cup. They will be required to do this by a certain “code of conduct”, which they must sign. This code includes not only the publication of positive reviews, but also the need to report to SC about “any offensive, degrading comments” by others, and preferably with screenshots.
“As the start of the tournament draws near, we have asked the most active fan clique leaders to personally select a small group of fans to join us as our guests to thank them for their cooperation,” an SC spokesman told REUTERS.
The championship’s website describes the Fan Leaders program as a network of about 400 fans and influencers from 60 countries who were invited to show “understanding” and create “positive content” for the tournament. In addition, these people will have to “like” and repost positive messages from third parties about the tournament. At the same time, the organizers did not say how many fans they invited, and did not provide any financial details. The media report that in addition to the Dutch, fans from Belgium and France received similar offers. For some reason, these lines recall a frame from The White Sun of the Desert, where Abdulla shouted to Vereshchagin: “If you want, we will pay in gold!” …
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Obviously, this is not the latest scandalous news from Qatar. And it looks like it’s time for bookmakers to start accepting bets on whether this championship will take place at all. And if so, who will be involved? And How?
It is likely that some teams will hold political actions even during matches. Like English footballers did at international games, getting down on one knee in support of BLM. It is also likely that a large number of scandals are unlikely to please FIFA and sponsors.
In any case, it is clear that the crisis in world football, due to its excessive politicization, has become too deep to simply be ignored. Or brush it off with arguments about collective responsibility and the need to take an active civic stand. Therefore, one should not be surprised if global changes take place in the leadership and management structure of world football after the end of the 2022 World Cup. Otherwise, the holding of any international competitions will simply be impossible due to the accumulated disagreements.
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