Back to Brief on Iran
LYON - The Americans may forever call this game soccer, but in the ancient scripture it is football, just as to thousands of the Iranians in exile from their own country's Islamic regime, the second Monday of the World Cup was both a celebration of sport and a demonstration of anger. The result was a match, a night of inflamed and exposed emotions, and ultimately an example of sportsmanship…
…The anthems were an act in themselves: Eleven white clad American players with pride bursting from them, 11 Iranians all in red knowing that the tens of thousands inside the Stade Gerland represented huge numbers of their countrymen and women forced to live abroad by the acts of an Islamic revolution 20 years ago…
In Tehran, I gather, President Mohammed Khatami is claiming the beauty of that goal, the points scored off America, as some kind of thanksgiving for the revolution.
There may, or may not be, people around the president who will tell him the truth of what took place in Lyon. It was that the Iranian Resistance fighters, a majority of the audience, defeated attempts by the gendarmerie to strip them of identity. Outside the barriers, the police deprived most Iranians of their coveted flags.
Whether the banners were innocent reflections of Iranian belonging, or bore slogans against the Khatami government, the cops confiscated them all. What they couldn't do - and did not do - was take the shirts off the backs of some thousands of political protesters whose white cloth was adorned by photographs of opposition leaders, and of Iranians executed by the mullahs…
As Iran's resistance members maintained their fervor and their noise, the public address system sought to drown the chorus of Iranian voices. They played American pop culture. ''It ain't what you do, its the way that you do it.'' Precisely.
30,000 Supporters of Resistance in US-Iran Match, The Guardian, June 23
…The thousand or so fans who made the journey from Tehran were swamped by the presence of the exiled Iranians, perhaps close to 30,000 of them, representing two thirds of the stadium's capacity. No more than 3,000 had been expected, and to have acquired so many tickets must have represented a feat of considerable black-market ingenuity.
They were rewarded by the reaction they received when, with half an hour to go, many of them removed their jackets to reveal T-shirts printed with portraits of Rajavi. All around the stadium these images could be seen, along with associated banners, vastly outnumbering not only the homeland Iranians but also the US fans, three or four thousand at most, clustered together in a corner of the North Curve.
Understandably FIFA prohibits the display of political flags and banners within its World Cup stadiums…But what happens when, as in Iran, the sport and the politics merge?..
Biggest Battles Were Fought in the Stands, Providence Journal Bulletin, June 22
LYON -- Two complete separate battles were waged last night at hot, muggy and electrically charged Stade Gerland…
The first major fight ignited during the playing of the Iranian National Anthem, when a group of Iranian exiles situated behind their goal unveiled a large banner with a photo of Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCR).
Iran's official allotment of 3,000 tickets had been distributed among its security and intelligence agents…
As soon as the pre-match photos were taken, the pro-Rajavi and anti-government banners reappeared en mass. And with them were thousands of t-shirts with Rajavi's likeness inside fluorescent green or orange borders…
With a 1-0 lead, the Iranian exiles danced to the Macarena at halftime. It is unlikely those scenes were seen back in Teheran. Iranian television was using a three-minute delay so it could edit out of the broadcast anything it didn't want shown.
The camera angles were tight to the field on the feed shown on press row, but it would have been impossible to edit out the pro-Rajavi supporters situated close to the field.
Moment of Pride, San Jose Mercury News, June 22
… Sunday's game was an emotional cause for the Iranian players. Their fans packed the stadium. Most were exiles who support the resistance movement. Though their flags -- the old Iranian flag with a lion and a sun on it -- were confiscated before the game as political statements, the fans still managed to make a political statement.
Thousands of people were wearing T-shirts bearing the face and name of Maryam Rajavi, the president of the resistance movement. The game was a raucous demonstration against the current Iranian regime.
And when Iran won, it was a glorious moment for the fans, who view sport as a voice of the people, not of the government. It was a moment of pride.