With great power comes great responsibility.
Canada Soccer has become a powerhouse in our country. It has been constantly consolidated in our sports landscape with the general sympathy, diversity, youth and recent success of the program. The goal is for Canada to become a world football powerhouse.
But as that power grows, you have to be very careful with how you execute it. Canada Soccer learned this lesson quickly, facing strong criticism for scheduling a friendly against Iran in Vancouver on June 5th. Following the reaction from various corners, Canada Soccer announced on Thursday that it has canceled the match.
The main controversial issue with Iran’s reception on Canadian soil was the fact that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in January 2020, only minutes after taking off from Tehran, it killed 176 people, including 85 Canadians. The PS752 Flight Victims’ Family Association called on Canada Soccer to “cancel the game immediately.”
The CBC report showing photos of Iran’s team leader Hamid Estili was also problematic at a party last month with alleged Iranian intelligence reporter Mahmoud Khazein, who has links with the IRGC. Khazein has been wanted by the FBI for more than a year for conspiring to kidnap international targets, including three Canadians.
And of course, Canada has no diplomatic relations with Iran, which also meant that there was a possibility that the game would not have continued even before Canada Soccer reacted. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not support the party against Iran, saying it was “not a good idea”. Visas for Iranian players were also not approved yet.
The Canadian High Commissioner to the UK and former Special Adviser on PS752 Flight Ralph Goodale tweeted that Canada Soccer’s behavior was “disgusting” and “called into question both the competition and the organisation’s values”.
Canada Soccer says it canceled the match against Iran because “it became a significant division.” Posture is an investment after originally defending the game under the guise of sport as an ability to unite.
But the game did not “become divisive”; the prospect of playing with Iran would always be divisive. To state the opposite is to suggest that there were two polarizing faces of this problem at one point.
No one outside of Canada Soccer thought the game was a good idea or necessary.
In the end, the families of the Canadians who died on flight PS752 did not want this game to be played and that is all that should matter. These are the only votes that should have been cast.
But beyond that, the Canadian players also made their feelings clear to the federation. Veteran midfielder Jonathan Osorio confirmed that the players sent an email to a senior Canada Soccer official to share their concerns.
“We thought it was better that maybe this game wasn’t played,” Osorio said on Friday after training for Toronto FC. “My feeling is that around the federation (Canada Soccer) ended up being the same feeling as well.”
You can understand the position of the players. What was supposed to feel like a return home to the West Coast and the celebration of the team’s recent FIFA World Cup qualifier would likely turn out to be a human rights demonstration. The likelihood of protests around and potentially inside the stadium during the match was worrisome.
It was even said that some of the players started receiving personal messages on social media from detractors and petitions from loved ones of people who got lost on flight PS752.
This basically put players in two fields: those who were uncomfortable with the message they would send to play a game against Iran, and those who were uncomfortable with the fact that it was not their decision, but they would stop responding. . awkward questions about it.
Apart from the ethical reasons for not wanting to play against Iran, players should also consider how such decisions are reflected in them as people and brands. The players themselves are now also recognizable brands and have relationships with companies and advertisers that they need to consider.
This dynamic is also valid for the whole program. It could be argued that right now there is no national sports organization in our country with a more upward trajectory than Canada Soccer. The line of corporate partners who want to align with a rising team and a growing sport is growing, something the program has not been able to say very often in recent decades. You never want to give anyone a reason not to give you money. And mistakes like this would be qualified.
Although Canada Soccer was criticized for the initial decision, it is now applauded for rectifying it. Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge said “we commend Canada Soccer for making this decision and look forward to cheering on our men’s soccer team during the 2022 World Cup”.
The question is, given the growing visibility of Canada Soccer, is it time to launch a wider network for feedback when making these decisions? His statement seems to indicate that this is the case:
“Canada Soccer will conduct a thorough review of our international match-fixing processes to ensure that no stone is left unturned in our pursuit of excellence both on and off the field, including consultation. with all stakeholders “.
However, you will never make everyone happy. This news was not understood in Iran.
The Iranian team told Iranian state media that Canada Soccer not only invited Iran, but was also paying $ 400,000 to play the game. This would have marked the first time in more than two decades that Iran would benefit from a friendly match. It is common to pay a team’s travel expenses for a friendly, but according to the Iran team leader, they could have amassed $ 200,000 after paying the team’s expenses.
The Iranian Football Federation will also demand $ 10 million in damages from Canada Soccer for the cancellation, according to a tweet from Sina Kalhor, Iran’s deputy sports minister.
Nour news agency described Canada Soccer’s decision as “political” and “unsportsmanlike.”
On paper, the game made sense, as the Canadian men’s team seeks to reduce its level of competition on the road to the World Cup. Iran, one of the best football nations in Asia, ranks 21st in FIFA, ahead of Canada, which is 38th.
But there is a reason why Iran has historically struggled to book friendlies before the World Cup.
The lesson here is that everything, including high-performance and big sports, is political. That is why Russia will not take part in the next World Cup. The irony is that the match against Iran was about to end and the Canadian team will take part in a World Cup in Qatar, which has its own list of equally problematic human rights crimes.
What is or is not appropriate is a room full of gray, but in a sports landscape of calculated constant risk assessment, the cost-benefit analysis of playing with Iran never made sense.
The good news is that it’s never too late to do the right thing. Following the cancellation of its friendly against Iran, Canada Soccer could try to make amends in the future by scheduling a friendly match with a rival like Ukraine, which is still in the process of qualifying for the World Cup. . It would be a tough test in the field (Ukraine ranks 24th in the world) and Canada has the largest Ukrainian community in the world outside of Ukraine itself and Russia. The benefits of the party could help support current war refugees.
And then, when Canada is in the World Cup scoring its first goal or possibly getting a first victory, that misstep will be just a footnote to the team’s promotion history.
But if this does not become a warning story, this ascent could be short-lived.