This week, two sports journalist friends and I started debating the Iranian football team.
One of them argued that players should boycott the World Cup, which starts in less than two months, on June 11, in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He considers it to be an important symbolic gesture against Donald Trump.
I, as always in these cases, said they have to go. History shows us that sports boycotts don’t work to end a war —politicians don’t care— and only harm those who have nothing to do with it: the athletes.
Leaving ideologies and political positions aside, let’s get to real life. Firstly: Iran qualified for the World Cup legitimately, on the field. The players deserve to go. It is not fair that they pay for the actions of their rulers. They will be asked about the war in interviews, but a professional athlete needs to know how to deal with that kind of pressure. If possible, talk about uncomfortable or sensitive topics (obviously, for Iranians, taking a public stance against the war becomes more difficult).
Second: it is the obligation of a tournament host to ensure that participants visit their country safely, whether they like it or not. Trump’s statement that Iran’s team should not go to the World Cup for their own safety is unacceptable. Iran, on the other hand, needs to accept the calendar. He asked not to play on North American soil and to switch his matches to other host countries, which is operationally impossible. And let’s face another reality check: as much as some say that FIFA should take the tournament out of the hands of the United States, the chance of that happening is zero.
Finally: it is the duty of sports entities to know how to deal with geopolitical issues. Instead of FIFA president Gianni Infantino pretending that nothing happens, with the shallow speech that sport has the power to unite the world, blah-blah-blah, he should admit that conflicts exist, show that the organizers care and are in control of the situation. Saying “we are aware and taking all measures so that players are safe, can focus on performance” etc.
Coincidentally, hours after the conversation with my friends, Infantino confirmed that the Iranian team will be at the World Cup and said another common phrase: “Sport should not mix with politics.”
Increasingly, experience in covering major events has shown me that the best path is the middle one. Sport cannot be in a bubble, oblivious to what is happening in the world. It is inevitable that it will mix with politics and it is innocent to think otherwise. It’s been happening forever — see the “Hitler” Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. The difference is that today there is the internet, social networks, information circulates more quickly.
At the same time, politics cannot be everything, dominate at any cost, deprive an athlete of what is perhaps the most important moment of their career. If war is the only criteria for a country to boycott a tournament or organizers to ban a nation, with the amount of conflicts today and in such a polarized world, there would be no major competition left.
Sometimes we need to see life and sport as they really are — not as we wish they were.
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