Iranian team has become political pawn at this World Cup | Opinion

INGLEWOOD, California — If you want the World Cup to promote peace and harmony in the world, you have to actually let it do that. Not use it as a political football.

Which is exactly what FIFA and the United States are doing.

The Iranian team has been put in an impossible position at this World Cup, a pawn in the war between its government and the United States. The players do not set policy or make laws. Yet Team Melli is being treated as if they do, and FIFA is going along with it.

Iran was banished to Tijuana, Mexico, at the eleventh hour, barred from having its base camp in Arizona as it planned. That resulted in a longer-than-expected trip to Los Angeles, where it plays its first World Cup game, against New Zealand, on Monday, June 15.

Now Iran faces the prospect of protests ahead of, maybe during, that World Cup opener.

“Of course we don’t have the same beautiful experience we always talk about,” Iran captain Mehdi Taremi said after the team arrived on Sunday, June 14.

“I know that it wasn’t just us. Several countries had visa problems and changes of training camps,” Taremi said through a translator. “Of course the tension existed before it even started. The feeling, the sensation people always have about how they look forward to the World Cup, this time around, they maybe haven’t had the same feeling.

“This kind of tension, it undermines that joy. It undermines the message of FIFA and our people, which is about football and it brings about peace.”

The Iranian government isn’t blameless in this debacle, either.

It spent weeks huffing and puffing that it was going to take its ball and go home and not even come to the World Cup. Now that it’s here, the federation tried to say only questions about the game would be allowed — a directive Mehdi and coach Amir Ghalenoei ignored.

When someone asked how the team would react if fans brought Iran’s pre-Revolution flag into the stadium, a representative tried to step in, crossing his arms in front of his face in the universal gesture for “Stop!”

But Iran is not hosting this tournament, the United States is. Iran is not allowing its crown jewel to be hijacked for political purposes, FIFA is.

The United States and Iran don’t get along. Fine. The Iranian regime is horribly repressive and has abused its people for decades. It also makes mischief throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East, and has long been a thorn in the side of the United States.

But the understanding when you host a global party is that you set differences aside during it. Plaster on a smile and grit your teeth until it’s over.

If the U.S. government really wanted to make the Iranian government squirm during this World Cup, it should have killed with kindness Team Melli and its supporters.

Vetted everyone on the squad, yes. But thrown the door open and rolled out the red carpet. Allowed the Iranians to train in Arizona. Found a way to get as many Iran fans into the stadiums as possible. Worked with Los Angeles officials to stage watch parties for the diaspora here.

It should have used the tournament to show that we don’t hate the people of Iran. That we are, in fact, on their side, and want them to enjoy the same freedoms we have.

Instead, we look like bullies who are all the bad things the Iranian government says we are. And FIFA, which not so long ago preached the imperative of every team that qualified for the World Cup having “access to the (host) country,” looks like spineless minions.

In the middle of it all is the Iran team.

Ghalenoei and his players have to tread a fine line. They are proud of their country and its culture and its history, and some likely share the feelings of their fellow Iranians who want regime change. But there are likely repercussions for those who do anything that appears to cross the regime.

The odds of Team Melli getting out of the group stage for the first time in seven appearances at the World Cup were already long, given they’re in the same group as Belgium and Egypt. The off-the-field distractions make it even less likely.

“These conditions, they have impacted our focus, our technical focus,” Ghalenoei acknowledged. “But I have really tried to make sure our players focus on strategy and techniques.

“But I am very happy to have heard your questions,” Ghalenoei added, “because you understand what we have been going through.”

Regardless of Iran’s results at this World Cup, there will be no winners. That’s what happens when you allow politicians to play with sports, and feckless leaders go along with it.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

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