Iran Ordered Home From L.A., Which Was Probably the Plan Anyway
The Iranian men's national soccer team has been instructed to leave the United States immediately after drawing 2-2 with New Zealand in Los Angeles, according to its coach. The order arrived faster than the team's luggage, and possibly faster than the New Zealand equalizer.
For a tournament marketed as a continent-wide festival of unity, the optics are awkward. Canada is hosting matches at BMO Field and BC Place. Mexico is hosting matches. The United States is hosting matches, plus a small diplomatic incident in which one participating nation is being shown the door between the group stage and the round of 16.
FIFA, which has spent years insisting the World Cup transcends politics, now finds itself running a tournament where politics has booked the return flight. Officials maintain that the games offer, in the words of one CBC columnist, "a chance to view things through someone else's eyes." Iran's players will be viewing things through a customs window.
The Canadian co-hosting committee, asked for comment, gestured vaguely north and noted that BMO Field has excellent transit access and a notably relaxed attitude about which flags get waved in the stands. Toronto has been quietly preparing for the possibility that any team experiencing geopolitical turbulence south of the border might prefer a neutral pitch with a streetcar stop.
The match itself ended 2-2, a result so diplomatically balanced it could have been negotiated at the G7. Which, conveniently, is also happening this week, in France, where nobody is being asked to leave.