GREEEEEEEEEEEEN! Turns To Blue

Well, that could be black-and-blue, for all we know.

Last week, in GREEEEEEEEEEEEN!, we offered the story of the heroics of members of the Iranian Soccer Team, wearing green wrist bands (or arm bands), during their match in the World Cup qualifier round.



Today, the other shoe (soccer and otherwise) dropped;

Iran bans election protest footballers

Their gesture attracted worldwide comment and drew the attention of football fans to Iran's political turmoil. Now the country's authorities have taken revenge by imposing life bans on players who sported green wristbands in a recent World Cup match in protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

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.

[snip]

Most of the players obeyed instructions to remove the armwear at half-time, but Mahdavikia wore his green captain's armband for the entire match. The four are also said to have been banned from giving media interviews.

The fate of the other two players who wore the wristbands is unknown. None of the team members were given back their passports upon returning to Tehran after the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw – a result that ended Iran's hopes of qualifying for next year's tournament.

[snip]

Ahmadinejad, a known football fan, has taken a close interest in the sport's affairs. In 2006 Iran was banned from international competition by the world governing body Fifa after claims of improper interference by his government. The ban was later lifted.

This year the national team coach Ali Daei was sacked, reportedly on Ahmadinejad's orders, after a 2-1 home defeat by Saudi Arabia.

Oh, boy ...

It is going to come to the Iranian Regime, sooner, or later, that they should be paying attention to the final stanza of lyrics, of ''Bein' Green' (from Ray Charles) that we posted previously;

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why
Wonder green and it'll do fine, cause' it's beautiful
And I think it's what I want to be

From the rooftops ... Allah Akbar!

GREEEEEEEEEEEEN!

I am a sucker for these kind of things (like the girls softball game last year, where the opposing team carried the girl who hit the winning hit, but was injured, and unless she crossed the plate - no substitution allowed - her team would lose).

And, yes, the title is a riff on those Spanish soccer announcers gooooaaaallll calls

H/T to Andrew Sullivan for being on the case, of the Iranian Soccer Team members wearing green, in support of the protesters back home.

Sullivan wrote;

Playing a critical game right now - and look at their wrists. They took the bands off in the second half. God knows what they were told in the half-time. But for those who still don't believe this is a genuinely national movement, open your eyes.

From CNN;

Iran's soccer team wears symbolic green bands

Members of Iran's national soccer team wore green arm and wrist bands Wednesday during their World Cup qualifying match against South Korea.

The team does not normally wear green bands

As to the green wrist bands, from Think Progress;

After half-time, only one player kept his green wristband on. Iranian bloggers speculated that “Ali Abadi, chairman of the Iranian Football Federation (FFI), who is close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had telephoned Seoul during half time and instructed the players to remove the green wristbands immediately.”

From the rooftops ... Allah Akbar!


Bonus Iran Riffs

Somebody Check Jim Baker's Passport!

How High The Moon

"It's Now All of Iran!"

Bonus Bonus

Ray Charles - Bein' Green - CD Quality Audio