Ronaldo in Tehran with Al Nassr: the return of a Saudi team to Iran

Sport and politics should always be kept strictly separate. But there are cases in which the combination can lead to something good. Remember ping pong diplomacy, the exchange of visits between players from the United States and the People’s Republic of China in the 1970s? The event constituted a moment of détente in relations between China and the United States of America, which paved the way for US President Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972. Today it is Cristiano Ronaldo’s turn to act as ambassador.

Sunni-Shia

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In fact, tomorrow with his Al Nassr he will challenge Persepolis at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran. And it will be a somewhat historic match, because it will be the first of a Saudi club (or national team) on “enemy” soil, after the matches were played on neutral ground for years. In fact, there is no good blood between the two countries (euphemism…). Saudi Arabia is the sacred nation of Islam, that of Mecca and Medina, of the Prophet’s tomb, of the Kaaba (the sacred black stone which is the destination of Islamic ritual pilgrimage), home of Wahabbism, an ultra-conservative movement of the Sunni branch of Islam . Iran, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly Shiite, “the faction of Ali”, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, on whose succession the differences between the two branches of the Muslim religion are based. The hatred between Sunnis and Shiites is ancestral and continues to this day. It is enough to remember the genocide of the Hazara, an ethnic group of Mongolian origin living in Afghanistan, at the hands of Isis and the Taliban.

rapprochement

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Lately however, thanks to the work of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, member of the Al Saud royal family, son of the current King Salman, and first in line to the throne of Saudi Arabia and his process of modernizing the country, there has it was a great rapprochement between the Saudis and Iranians, sanctioned by a meeting held in China last March. Diplomatic relations have resumed, the respective embassies in Riyadh and Tehran have been reopened, and now – in fact – for the first time since 2016 a club from the realm will travel to ancient Persia.

controversies

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However, there is no shortage of controversy. The president of Persepolis, Reza Darvish, declared that the players and the Al Nassr delegation will have unlimited access to the internet during the entire period of their stay in Iran: “I spoke with the CEO of Irancell and told him that we want to provide to our guests with SIM cards that they can use as long as they are in our territory and which will have no limitations”. Yes, because ordinary people in Iran often find themselves cut off from access to Whatsapp, Facebook and other social media (a limit that can easily be circumvented with the use of a VPN), especially in these days, those of the first anniversary of the assassination of Mahsa Amini by the religious police of Tehran, who had arrested her for not wearing the hijab correctly.

champions

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On October 3rd it will then be the turn of Al Hilal, Neymar’s club and the most successful with 4 successes, to travel to Tehran to challenge Nassaji Mazandaran in group D of the Asian Champions League. Al Ittihad, reigning champion of the Roshn Saudi Pro League, Karim Benzema’s team, will play the day before in Isfahan against Sepahan in Group C. The fourth Saudi team is Al-Fayha, the only one that has not as property the Pif, the state investment fund.