Sometimes, the political and ideological rivalries even compel the sportsmen to ditch their career; that is what happened to the Iranian Olympian Alireza Khojasteh when she declined to participle in the Rio Games’ judo competition last year. Is it right to bring the issue of the political and ideological rivalries into the platform of sports?When the Iranian government has banned two players for participating in a match in which Greek football club Panionios in which they are members played in Athens against the Maccabi Tel Aviv, the club based in Israel which is the arch rival of Tehran, the concerned authorities of the Islam country gives an unpleasant message to the world that it is right to bring the ideological rivalries into the platform of the world sports, which is respected as the platform where no personal, political, religious, community, racial, ideological and gender rivalries exists.
Masoud Shojaei, the captain of the Iran national team, and Ehsan Haji Safi, the most promising player of the team, are the two players which face the ire of the Tehran regime; in normal circumstances, had the Islamic nation known as the centre of Shia power respected the values projected by the world sports, these players might have received might special appreciation instead of the ban. As per the Iran’s draconian sports law, no Iranian sportsperson should participate in the sports event in which the Israeli players are a part of. The International authorities should intervene in this issue and make sure that no country is trying to taint the values propounded by the world sports platform.
Vignesh
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