World Cup 26, Clearly Offside

Even before a ball has been kicked off in this year’s World Cup Tournament, a major player has been caught foul. That player is none other than the United States of America State Department which has come down heavy handedly, denying visas to members of qualified teams or officials.

The decision by Canada, the USA and the United Mexican State to host the world’s largest soccer tournament has seemed a great idea-and on paper it all looks beautiful. Here we had this great footballing nation México, sharing matches with the United States which is eager to further spread the game, and Canada. This guarantees access to millions of sports loving spectators who could travel easily across borders in support of their favourite teams; surely, a win/win for the sport of kings. But is it?

The problem is that the Donald Trump administration really could not care less about the beautiful game of soccer, “The game of the people” as Bung Cato famously dubbed it. Left to Trump and his cronies the tournament would be played among European nations who they consider the “worthy ones”. They care little about pre-match preparations by participating teams.

We see therefore that the Iranian team is being permitted to enter the United States only one day before their match. This is totally unacceptable to any team preparing for competition at this level. But it is not surprising as this is how the US State Department treats some delegations attending meetings at the United Nations General Assembly, and other gatherings at the UN.

There are reports of team delegations and soccer federation officials being denied visas to attend the tournament. Some are flatly denied, while others are issued single entry visas. This would limit free movement between the three host nations.

The US administration claimed first that the non-issuance of visas was to comply with national security concerns. Now, since the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, persons are being denied visas on the basis of health concerns.

Even New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has called out the denial of visas for journalists from certain countries, or the rejection of a visa for a coach of a team, as well as single-day visas for specific national teams as “anathema to what the tournament is about”.

The case of the team representing the Islamic Republic of Iran has been the worst. And the treatment meted out to this squad began even prior to when the US started its war against their country. Members of the Iranian Federation almost missed a draw back in December over visa issues. The harassment of the Iranian team has not ceased since then, and became worse after the war started.

While travelling to a FIFA Congress in Vancouver in late April, federation president Mehdi Taj, was denied entry at the border in what the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister said was “unintentional”.

Last month, the national team was forced to move its base from the US state of Arizona to Mexico. That was, ironically, after FIFA had denied a request by Iran to move all its matches to Mexico to avoid this harassment.

Even Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, weighed in saying the U.S. “doesn’t want the Iranian national team to stay overnight”.

And although all Iranian players finally received visa approval, more than a dozen team staffers and federation officials did not. The Iranian head coach finally received his.

The entire issue has gotten so ridiculous that a State Department official was quoted as saying that they would not allow the Iranian team to “abuse the system to sneak terrorists into the United States”.

Of course, we know that the US has gone to war with Iran, and this ‘elephant’ cannot be ignored in this whole unfortunate football episode.

Clearly, though, the attitude of the US authorities runs counter to the mood and spirit of the world tournament. Indeed, this is foul play off the field of competition.

The latest report is that of a Somalian football referee who was going to have the greatest moment of his refereeing career, being denied entry to the United States when he arrived in Miami. Somalia, we might recall, is on of a number of countries banned from travelling to the United States. For this referee at the pinnacle of his career to suffer this indignity must be crushing to his spirit and his ego. He has reportedly returned to Istanbul.

After all the work put it by all these national teams to prepare for this event, it’s the biggest off-side whistle being blown at the sport so fiercely supported globally. South Africa’s Bafana Bafana were harassed to no end before finally being given their visas. Even media practitioners have been made to suffer, with journalists from Africa with the International Sports Federation appealing to FIFA for assistance. This entire situation is robbing the sport of its true spirit of fairness.

The game must go on, but it is suffering serious body blows even before the first match kicks off on June 11. Clearly a huge offside!