TEHRAN (Iran News) – Canada in recent decades has tried to paint a picture of it as a true human rights defending country but it has actually turned into a haven for the economic corrupts and political oppositions of other countries and it now actually acts like its lord, the U.S., against all human rights principles and politicizes everything.
A couple of weeks ago Canadian media outlets reported that Canada would host the Islamic Republic of Iran for a friendly soccer match and this report suddenly came under spotlight and it faced some backlashes from the politicians in both countries but the Football Federation of Canada reiterated that the match would go on as schedule and it would not pay any attention to the oppositions and even it started selling 40,000 tickets for the match.
After days of opposition from some politicians in Canada and a few number of anti-revolutionary Iranians and Canadian politicians, the Football Federation of Canada suddenly on Thursday in a tweet surprised the football fans by announcing the cancellation of the match without giving any reasons behind the cancellation.
Of course, everybody knows it well that the cancellation has been because of the political pressures and once again politics played its role over the fate of a sport event and led to its cancellations. In recent years, sports fans have heard of these kinds of remarks by officials that politics should not interfere the sports events and even international sport federations have set this issue as one of their principles and have sanctioned or punished federations or athletes who politicize the sports. Iranian federations and athletes the past have faced such punishments due to the claims of politicizing the sports.
But now Canada as a country which claims defending human rights and is against politicizing the sport has involved in a dirty political game by cancelling a football match between Iran and Canada which is definitely because of the political reasons.
The Football Federation of Canada for the sake of a bunch of Iranian oppositions’ claim has taken a political decision against its principle and once again Canada showed the world it cannot be a true human rights defender or supporter of non-politicized sport event.
Reacting to Canada’s decision, Kazem Gharibabadi, vice-president of Iran’s judiciary tweeted, “Canada’s decision to call off a friendly with Iran is testimony to the fact that it “can’t keep politics off the pitch.”
Canada’s game against Iran in Vancouver on June 5 was seen by Canadian football authorities as pivotal to preparations for the finals to be held in Qatar later this year.
But the fixture created controversy, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opposed to the game, describing it as a “bad idea”.
Shortly after the Canadian decision, Iran’s “Team Melli” media officer Mohammad Jamaat told state television that Tehran will “file a complaint to FIFA”, the world game’s governing body, against the Canadian decision.
The match cancellation comes nine days after Prime Minister Trudeau criticized Canada Soccer (Canada’s football federation) for their decision to invite Iran.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson accused Canada of politicizing the game match. He told Iranian state media Press TV that his country will hold Canada responsible for any violations of its agreement with Canada Soccer.
Of course, Iranians expected the match to be cancelled or to turn into a political show by gathering of anti-revolutionary people at the stadium for creating another political farce against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Canada has turned into the tail of the U.S. and it is acting as a hostile country against Tehran and it has hosted most of Iranian opposition groups for continuing their hostile activities against Tehran. Canada has closed its embassy in Tehran to show its faithfulness to the U.S. and definitely it follows what its lord asks.
Now it is time for FIFA to show its sincerity regarding its policy of not politicizing soccer matches or events by taking a firm decision against Canada which cancelled the match due to political reasons. We hope that FIFA acts duly unlike other international bodies which act in favor of the big countries by ignoring punishments for them while Iranians are taking action for reportedly $10m damages.
If Canada thinks that such moves can weaken Iran’s national team performance in the World Cup and against its lord the U.S., it is fully wrong because Canada cannot affect determination of Iranian Cheetahs and definitely Iran will show its power against the U.S. in the World Cup group stage in Qatar like what it did in 1992 in France where Iranian national soccer team overpowered the U.S. and brought joy to the nation.
Canada is the big loser of this political decision and sooner or later it will see the backlash of this politicized decision which angered Iranians and made their determination stronger than ever to defeat any country which plays foul against them.
