The 2022 fifa world cup is officially underway and as we predicted,
it has already been chock full of surprises.
Even before a ball was kicked, Karim Benzema has sustained a
thigh injury in training and has been ruled out of the world cup.
This makes the tournament the first of its kind where neither of the top two ranked
players in the Ballon d’or will feature. Sadio Mane is also out with a knee injury
effectively denting Senegal hopes and aspirations for the tournament.
After the first 90 minutes were completed, another unwanted record was made.
Qatar had become the first host nation to lose an opening match at a World Cup.
Not fancied against the Ecuadorians, many expected them to still put up a fight and come away with at
least a draw. It was not to be though,as they were easily brushed aside in the first half,
prompting scores of Qatari fans to leave the stadium at the end of the first half.
To say that the surprises followed on day 2 would be an understatement.
The game between Iran and England delivered more talking points that we could have imagined.
The match itself was a mere formality as England
trounced their opponents by a whopping six goals to two.
Perhaps, what was a little curious was that Harry Kane did not get on the scoresheet.
But what caught our attention was the mood of the stadium when the Iraniian anthem was being sung.
Boos and jeers could be heard all over and no - these were not by the English fans.
Iran’s fans were seen booing their own anthem and the players were visibly in agreement.
In spite of how special the world cup might be to them,
all eleven of them were mute,with none of them uttering a single line of their famous anthem.
Their refusal to sing the anthem follows a stunt they pulled in late September when they
wore jackets to cover up their country's symbols before a friendly with Senegal.
As it stands, the entire nation and their players are not letting up on
their anti-government protest on football’s biggest stage.
Many shouts of “Say her name, Mahsa Amini” were heard in the stands as a
sea of banners were hoisted up with the inscriptions: woman, life and freedom.
Ever since the 22-year old Mahsa Amini died in police custody,
Iran has been thrown into months of public unrest and demonstrations.
Many believe that the moral laws for dressing have been outdated for a long time and the
regime’s continual enforcement of these laws constitute a fundamental human rights violation.
The 3-day detainment of Mahsa for wearing a headscarf improperly led to her demise;
and has sparked protests on a scale never seen before in the middle eastern country.
Women have been seen removing and burning their headscarves in public while many activist groups
have been calling on FIFA to expel Iran from the world cup and replace them with Ukraine.
The team’s latest silent snub of the anthem has been praised but their coach,
Carlos Queiroz is not happy with the fans fixation on what his players do.
He told reporters: “Whatever they do, whatever they say, they want to ‘kill’ them.
“Can you imagine whatever you say or do, you’re killed. Let them play the game!”
To him, all of this has taken a huge toll on the mentality of the squad,
as was clearly felt in the drubbing they got at the hands of England.
By comparison, in Russia 2018,
they drew 1:1 with Portugal and only lost by a goal to nil against Spain.
So for Carlos Queiroz, the team must be left alone to focus on their football.
He added: “ It is not right to come to this World Cup and ask them to do things that
are not their responsibility. They want to bring pride and joy for the people.
“You don’t even imagine behind the scenes what these kids have been living in the
last few days, just because they want to express themselves as footballers.”
His captain however, has been very vocal about the government and continues to support the protests.
. He said:
“We have to accept the conditions in our country are not right and our people are not happy.
“We are here but it does not mean we should not be their voice or we should not respect them.”
We doubt that the manager will be happy with his comments but sooner or later,
the results have to get better if they want more opportunities to protest with the fans.
For now, they are odds on favourites to get eliminated from their group.
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