CANCELLED WC Prep Match #1: Canada vs Iran - Sunday, June 5 BC Place, Vancouver

[Neil R.]

So, refunds for this match might take a little bit longer than originally anticipated? 😂

[ECW]

On 6/4/2022 at 10:12 AM, phil03 said:

Warning for somewhat long post:

Alright, I'd like to preface this by saying that I haven't followed the national team closely for nearly as long as others here probably have and diplomatic relationships between Canada and the Middle-East aren't my area of expertise so take everything I say with a grain of salt. That being said, and being warry to go too deep in the politics since it isn't the subject of expertise, the fact that I am still a guy who did follow it closely recently and who has politics-related job and background I thought about the whole mess quite a bit recently and I landed on the idea that there is a plenty of blame to share all around.

For the Government: Deciding which country is within or outside the bonds when it come to sporting and cultural ties for political reasons should be done publicly and, as much as possible, in common by Canada's civil societies. Would it have been justified to make such a decision with Iran back in 2020? Arguably yes but we didn't, we let their comics, musicians and sports teams in. It isn't like the CSA invited Russia and Afghanistan, for both of which there is an understanding that such an invitation would have been beyond the pale. The CSA thought inviting Iran was ok because that's the signal they got from other sectors of Canadian society and they only get their hand slapped because they have a higher profile now. Failing things being uniform the CSA should have, at the very least, been told that they didn't have governmental go ahead in private and sometimes ago, this isn't what happened. What happened was a Twitter storm that made its way to the House of Commons, leading to the CSA was thrown under the bus, with more then one side of the Canadian political spectrum being opportunistic in the process...

For the CSA: Even if they had every reason to think that inviting Iran was within bound the fact remain that they invited a national team, and one that is politically important to their country's regime to booth, of a country whose government is pretty clearly unpopular in Canada, whose armed forces where recently involved in an unresolved incident that cost the lives of Canadian citizens and who does not have established diplomatic relations with Ottawa. The CSA should have either passed over Iran entirely or built a pretty comprehensive comms plan to deal with the PR and political risks coming with inviting them. That they didn't do either cannot be excused IMO.

For the Iranian Football Federation: I'd argue that what might very well have typed the balance toward cancellation was the Iranians bragging that they would make a profit on it and if they genuinely wanted to happen, which they appear to have done, that was simply a stunning lack of judgement. Just lack the CSA they ought to have know the game was potentially politically sensitive, monitored the situation and not thrown oil on the fire when troubles started in Canada.

For the Iranian Government: Because the whole reason why this is a more then just a game of Soccer with a country we don't like is because of their actions in 2020 and since then...

Essentially, you needed all four of these actors to act in the way they did to land us in the current situation for sure. Just one of them being more responsible about this could have avoided the whole thing.

Expecting the Iranian football federation and the Iranian government not to want a money making friendly with a Western World Cup bound country is absurd. Of course they’d take it, 100% of the time. For the (unprecedented) money and the “sport-washing” PR. It’s innocently offering this that is really nuts. Not only are the CSA totally ignorant of the very predictable wishes of their own national government but their players have been reported as being appalled as well.

I find it funny that both the CSA and the Iranian federation issued virtually the same press release: “sport is innocent, politics should not interfere”. That some of you folks on this forum believe such a thing, well, it’s noble, please carry on with that ideal. (For 90 mins at a time it might even be possible). But I don’t imagine many corrupt governments and bureaucratic bodies concur… no matter the press releases they issue. 

The CSA (I don’t want to dignify then by using their Soccer Canada rebrand) have been low level corrupt/sleepily incompetent for all the 40 years I’ve been following the CMNT. I’ve been wondering  when the shit will hit the fan now with the added attention they’re finally getting. 

Edited June 6, 2022 by ECW

[ECW]

On 5/24/2022 at 8:08 PM, BigMo said:

Opinions on this are not uniform in the community (like any other diaspora) I guarantee you a sizeable amount of Iranian-Canadians from the Vancouver area will be at the game, if it goes through. You only need to drive around Richmond Hill when Iran has a major qualifier or World Cup game to notice plenty still support the national team.

I dont buy that all those people are regime sympathizers. Many are simply football fans who want to support people from a shared heritage (much like the players themselves are not pro regime for representing the country)

That’s quite true. Personally, I don’t get why an Iranian exile in Canada would support this particular match at this particular time. But of course you have different (heated) opinions even within the same family. Most Iranians I know are football fans and of course they follow their club teams and the national teams. That’s not quite the issue here. And yes, too, buying a ticket doesn’t make one a regime supporter (although a certain amount of the proceeds do go to the regime). 

Edited June 6, 2022 by ECW

[phil03]

2 hours ago, ECW said:

Expecting the Iranian football federation and the Iranian government not to want a money making friendly with a Western World Cup bound country is absurd. Of course they’d take it, 100% of the time. For the (unprecedented) money and the “sport-washing” PR. It’s innocently offering this that is really nuts. Not only are the CSA totally ignorant of the very predictable wishes of their own national government but their players have been reported as being appalled as well.

Oh I am not surprised they wanted to make money and PR out of it but everyone would have better off if they had waited after the game before starting to brag about it (assuming the game ended up being played, of course).

[Colonel Green]

As a bit of a postscript, this CBC article has some details about how this game ended up scheduled in the first place. We knew they were trying to arrange a match with Tunisia, evidently they weren’t willing to match the $1 million+ fee that Tunisia got for the Kirin Cup.

[Treppy2]

Not meaning to revisit a painful episode, but some may find it interesting that Canada played Iran today in the FIVB Nations League (volleyball). The match took place in Bulgaria, and as far as I know nobody complained about us playing against Iran. (I guess because the match wasn’t in Canada and we weren’t paying them $400K.) Iran won the match 3 sets to 0.

[devioustrevor]

I find it kind of funny.  If the CSA had've had some backbone, they would have only had to deal with the cost and embarrassment of cancelling one friendly.  But..........

[red card]

1 hour ago, Treppy2 said:

Not meaning to revisit a painful episode, but some may find it interesting that Canada played Iran today in the FIVB Nations League (volleyball). The match took place in Bulgaria, and as far as I know nobody complained about us playing against Iran. (I guess because the match wasn’t in Canada and we weren’t paying them $400K.) Iran won the match 3 sets to 0.

And shown by CBC TV today.

 

[SpursFlu]

1 hour ago, red card said:

And shown by CBC TV today.

 

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/6551594/justin-trudeau-iran-plane-crash-handshake/amp/

Bad CSA bad boys