Iranian Players Who Wore Green Wristbands Are Now Banned/Retired

June 23rd, 2009 | by: Daryl | View Comments

Remember how six Iranian players wore green wristbands for the first half of the World Cup Qualifier vs South Korea recently? Well, apparently four of those six players have now retired from in international football. Or – more likely – banned.

Here’s what The Guardian has to say:

According to the pro-government newspaper Iran, four players – Ali Karimi, 31, Mehdi Mahdavikia, 32, Hosein Ka’abi, 24 and Vahid Hashemian, 32 – have been “retired” from the sport after their gesture in last Wednesday’s match against South Korea in Seoul.

They were among six players who took to the field wearing wristbands in the colour of the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, which has been adopted by demonstrators who believe the 12 June election was stolen.

The Guardian also says that all Team Melli players have been banned from giving interviews and none of them have had their passports returned to them on their return home.

Karimi and Mahdavikia are two of Iran’s best – and best known – players. Mahdavikia wore the captain’s armband. And while they and Hashemian are both in their thirties, Ka’abi is just 24. Which pretty much rules out any chance of this being a regular Paul Scholes style international retirement.

This incident highlights just how brave the players were in wearing those wristbands. They knew that there would be consequences, but did it anyway.

And though I’m not sure what the Iranian government hopes to achieve here, I am sure that stripping the Iranian national team of some its best players is not going to make them any more popular with the Iranian people.