Travel ban puts Meram in tough spot
Over the years, I have heard from many readers who believe that sports and politics should not mix. I get that. To be sure, there were many days when Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson — and scores of other athletes who have found themselves in the middle of a political maelstrom, unwittingly or otherwise — would have agreed, wholeheartedly.
The reality is that sports
are as immune to the slings and arrows of the real world as any other walk of life. Today, the congregation is right down the street — where Crew SC midfielder Justin Meram is dribbling into the intersections. He cannot nutmeg international politics.
Meram is an American citizen who is proud of his Iraqi heritage. His parents hail from Mosul, and he has made it part of his life’s calling to pay homage as a member of the Iraqi national team. The calling has been put on hold as President Donald Trump’s travel ban, placed on foreign nationals from six Muslim-majority countries, is compelling Meram to pass on playing with the Iraqi national team.
Clearly, he sees risk in leaving the country.
On Saturday, Meram and the Crew played at the Houston Dynamo. Meanwhile, the Iraq Football Association issued a release that made Meram a news item throughout the Middle East, and beyond.
The Iraq FA said, in essence, that Meram has chosen not to participate in two upcoming World Cup qualifiers because of safety concerns
regarding his travel and his family.
The Iraq FA said Meram has chosen to skip a game March 23 against Australia in Tehran — a game being played in Iran, and not in Iraq, for security reasons — due to “recent decisions by the American government with regards to its relationship with the Islamic State.”
The Iraq FA said it tried to change Meram’s mind. It told him his “entrance to Tehran will not affect his presence in America (and) that was not convincing even with assertion from the association’s legal expert.”
Presumably, Meram has lawyers telling him otherwise. It is hard to tell at the moment as Meram could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon. One can’t blame him for keeping a low profile. He and the Crew had a game.
As the old adage goes, club before country.
Earlier in the week, it was announced that Meram signed a contract extension that, according to reports, raised his average annual compensation from $175,000 to $525,000. I would wager that Crew fans were thrilled with this transaction because if anyone on the team deserved such a bump, it
was Meram.
As the old adage goes, club before country.
That being clear, Meram’s dedication to the Iraqi national team is inspirational. Because Mosul is so war-torn, it took years to assemble the paperwork and obtain dual citizenship. Since, Meram has traveled thousands of miles over hundreds of hours, commuting by air. Those who have heard him describe the scores of thousands of Iraqis who flock to soccer matches have a notion of how his heartstrings have been thrummed.
Put yourself in his boots. Meram’s parents are Chaldean Christians who met in the Detroit area, where they have lived for decades. Meram was born and raised in Shelby Charter Township, Michigan, which is 12 miles north of 8 Mile Road. The Merams are as American as Eminem, Oscar Mayer or Corrado Parducci.
Yet, he is unsure how an executive order might affect him and/ or his family if he plays a soccer game in Iran. He is something of a political football, caught between Iraq and a hard place. I feel for the guy, and there is a tinge of shame in the feeling.