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Low key Iran visits U.S. for three friendlies, World Cup rematch
Posted: Saturday January 08, 2000 01:54 PM
OAKLAND, California (Reuters) -- For all the history of bitter relations between the two countries, the Iranian national soccer team's visit to the United States has been decidedly low-key. The Iranian players mill casually about the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in this northern California city where they remain when not training at the nearby Oakland Coliseum. Friends and relatives come and go, for there are approximately 200,000 people of Iranian descent living in this area, and each player seems to have at least a handful of well-wishers on hand. The Iranians open a three-game tour on Sunday at the Coliseum against Mexico, a nation they have never faced in soccer, then travel to Los Angeles for a game Wednesday against Ecuador. The tour culminates January 16 at the Rose Bowl in a rematch of a U.S.-Iran meeting 18 months ago at the World Cup in France, which Iran won 2-1. Both teams were later given the FIFA Fair Play Award for that politically charged match. A week in advance of the match at the Rose Bowl, 35,000 tickets have already been sold. Southern California is the home of about a half-million people of Iranian descent. Iran's visit had to be funneled through several U.S. governmental agencies for approval. The visit had been in the works since last spring, but a proposed match last June had to be scrapped while the U.S. State Department and Department of Justice cleared the way bureaucratically and politically for a team from a country which has no official diplomatic links with the United States. "There is nothing of a problem between the American and Iranian people," said team technical director Jalal Talebi, who lived in northern California for 18 years and was the head coach at France '98. "It is between the governments, and I believe these disputes are behind us." Acrimony between the two governments began with the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The United States severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 1980 after militant students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Only when Iranian wrestling teams were cleared to visit the United States in the 1990s did the sporting frost begin to thaw. A dispute over the policy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to fingerprint every Iranian national entering the United States threw the tour in doubt last month. A compromise was worked out, and members of the Iranian party were not fingerprinted Wednesday when their plane landed in Chicago for passport checks and clearance of customs. The party arrived in Oakland Wednesday night, and more than 250 fans were on hand at the airport to greet them. The players and coaches were taken through an alternative gate to avoid the fans, and their bus to the hotel was escorted by a fleet of police motorcycles. More than a dozen journalists for publications and broadcast stations serving the Iranian community are covering the team's visit. The hotel lobby sometimes becomes a studio as TV crews converge on players to record sound bites. For some reason, the team's luggage did not arrive until the following night, and so soccer shoes and jerseys had to be borrowed from local merchants for a training session on Thursday afternoon. The team will be sequestered at night on a single floor of the hotel and two bodyguards will be on duty at all times. The hotel will be under surveillance by the U.S. Secret Service, and the Oakland City Police Department has been alerted. But for the most part, the Iranian visit resembles those of the National Football League or National Basketball Association teams that often stay here rather than one from a country which once labelled the United States "the Great Satan. Head coach Mansour Pourhaidari said: "This is much more of an issue for the media than it is for me and my players." Iran has brought nine France '98 veterans, including six starters. Since France '98, striker Ali Daei has played for Bayern Munich and now plays for Hertha Berlin, and forward Mehti Mahdavakia has emerged as a star since moving to Hamburg from relegated Bochum last summer. But Pourhaidari has played down the importance of results on this tour. "The hope is at this tournament that the foreign-based players come here and get good practice with the players who play within the country," said Pourhaidari, who took over from Talebi as head coach after the World Cup and led Iran to the Asian Games soccer championship in Thailand in December, 1998. "We are happy to play against three strong teams, to measure our strength and our weaknesses as we prepare for the Asian Championships and World Cup qualifying." Iran traveled to Canada last June to play in the Canada Cup tournament, in which they posted a win and two draws. They have not won a match since, having tied Japan 1-1 and Denmark 0-0 in friendlies last year. Pourhaidari admits this tour extends beyond goals and points. "Sports can narrow the gap between countries," he said, "and we are also happy to help this process."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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