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Jamshid Chalangi:
In tonight’s program we will look at the state of sports in Iran under the country’s current economic and social problems, as the Revolutionary Guard which has now been designated as a terrorist group by the US controls most of Iran’s football clubs and other sport bodies.
We will ask why Iran’s football stadiums are always the scenes of clashes between spectators and the security forces and why the regime still bars women to enter these stadiums.
Our guest to discuss these issues with him tonight is the former member of Iran’s national football team Mehrdad Amin Shirazi, who now lives in Toronto.
Mehrdad Amin Shirazi:
It is precisely as you mentioned. After the end of the war with Iraq, the Revolutionary Guards entered Iran’s economic system and placed their own members in the country’s sports organisations, most notably the football clubs as well as the football federation.
FIFA has a specific chart thatdictates to member countries that they must show that they have invested intheir football clubs and their management bodies.
But under Kafashian’s rule we neither had any managerial system nor any true investment to help our country’s national team to be able to enter Asian and World Cup competitions.
Most of the people responsible for our football clubs and national team are uneducated and stooges of the power centres of the regime who only waste our people’s resources and make money and name for themselves.
Anyone who stands up against the Mafia-type bodies that run or country’s sports will be purged immediately, unless they become part of this corrupt system.
