So Iran’s footballers have landed in Mexico, presumably without having to explain their government’s enthusiasm for stoning women and hanging journalists. The visa row is solved, but the moral playacting continues. The British government, with its trademark mixture of sincerity and self-deception, pressures the United States to honour the spirit of sport.
Honour the spirit of sport. Let us laugh, let us weep. Sport has never been about honour.
It is about nationalism, money, and the occasional moment of transcendence that we pretend justifies the rest. The Iran team will play. The world will watch.
And we will all pretend that this is a triumph of diplomacy rather than a reminder that the West has the spine of a jellyfish when it comes to confronting tyranny. The Victorians at least had the decency to be shameless imperialists. Now we wrap our cowardice in pieties about inclusivity.
