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We begin tonight’s edition of A Window to the Fatherland with Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh reading one of his poems from the book of his collected works.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
In tonight’s program and before the start of the match between Iran and Spain at the World Cup, we talk to our colleague and friend, the veteran Iranian sport journalist Iraj Adibzadeh about the world of sports in Iran.
Iraj Adibzadeh:
In short, I must say that the Iranian regime does not deserve to claim any connection to the creation of the current Iranian national team at the World Cup in Russia.
Football is a unique and modern sport but for the last 40 years the Iranian regime has completely ignored not football but all sports in Iran, chief amongst them the banning of our women from several sports and preventing them from entering sports stadiums.
At one stage due to the lack of government support we did not even have a national football team and we just had to use the same team that had won the Asian cup to send them to the World Cup in France whose performance and wins led to mass dancing celebrations of men and women on the streets of Iran and humiliated the regime and broke a taboo.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
In the past we have had good football coaches and now Carlos Queiroz has been helping us for the last seven years.
Iraj Adibzadeh:
Precisely since Queiroz’s arrival we have done well on international stage. He is a smart man and has realized that Iran’s football is infested with the corruption of the Revolutionary Guard commanders who own most of the clubs. So he has had to fight off the Guards influence by relying on some of the Iranian footballers that play for foreign clubs.
We now have 12 of them in our national team who actually live and play outside Iran.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
What is your prediction for Iran-Spain match tonight?
Iraj Adibzadeh:
We already have three points from beating Morocco. We have a good chance to go to the next stage of the tournament. Queiroz plays a defence match and relies on counter attack. Forwards like Sardar Azmon and Jahnbakhsh are the real assets for Iran and given the chance will hopefully help us go through.
