Iran is no place for English football fans
The depth and intensity of the Iranian leadership’s foul ideology has been a dominant feature of geopolitics over the past 50 years. Not only does it swear death and damnation to America and Israel, it is a deeply dangerous place for British nationals too; after six years in prison for a baseless accusation of a plot to “topple the government”, dual British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has only just returned to the UK.
The country has a vice police that, among many other absurd and threatening things, punishes women for not wearing a veil in public. Alcohol is banned. Two weeks ago, women were pepper-sprayed for attending a football match. The list could go on ... and on.
And so it is fascinating to learn that Iran has put itself forward as an ideal overspill location for 2022 World Cup fans attending matches in Qatar. Officials are proffering the island of Kish, a 40-minute flight from Qatar, saying they are considering waiving visa requirements for Britons and even Americans so they can bop between matches and hotels on the island.
Iran has apparently signed a deal with Qatar to increase flights from 72 a day to about 150 during the World Cup, and its transport minister said, as if the past five decades of ideological loathing directed at the West never happened, that it would “offer foreign fans and tourists during their stay in Iran the opportunity to visit the country’s tourist gems”.
British fans aren’t convinced. “You’ll be able to buy beer in the main fanzone in Doha and presumably that won’t be an option in Iran,” said one from the England Supporters Travel Club. “Then there is the whole general political climate and given Iran and the UK have not been best of friends lately, why would you want to risk going there?”
Quite. There is no universe in which Iran will be able to tolerate England fans in full flood, and vice versa. But its reasons for desiring to suspend reality for the World Cup, however bizarre in their suddenness, are clear: money. Funny, isn’t it, how easily the most firmly held, religiously enshrined beliefs can all be thrown over when an easy shot at profit emerges.
Of course, if Iran really wanted to boost its economy, it might start by putting in a government that respected human rights and toned down the murderous rhetoric towards America and Israel.