Two games in, and the Fifa World Cup has already bounced from one farce to another. On day one we had the traffic chaos and empty seats which accompanied Qatar’s weak submission against Ecuador. Monday brought the sight of Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand being allowed to carry on with a very clear concussion in his side’s eventual 6-2 battering at the hands of England.
At a time when Fifa are under the spotlight due to the human rights record of the host nation, the last thing they could have done with was a very public and flagrant disregard for the health of footballers to add to the ever-lengthening rap sheet.
Women, migrant workers, LGBTQ+ individuals, players… is there anybody whose well-being Fifa DO care about?
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Beiranvand was injured in the eighth minute of the opening Group B clash in Al Rayyan when he came out to tip away Harry Kane’s right-wing cross and in doing so ended up colliding with defender Majid Hosseini. The pair clashed heads, and it took some minutes for the goalkeeper to get to his feet.
When he eventually did so the watching world bore witness to ridiculous scenes as the obviously dazed Beiranvand waved his arms unconvincingly in a bid to persuade medics that he was fit to continue. All the while, Brazilian referee Raphael Claus simply stood at close quarters and went along with the whole charade.
Beiranvand was allowed to go through the ceremony of changing his shirt for one not covered in blood from his broken nose and then, after an eight-minute delay and an implausible stroll around the six-yard box, he took a goal kick to resume play. Within a minute he was calling for a substitute, evidently in no fit state to have been permitted to continue. Thankfully, it was then that he was finally stretchered from the field, with Hossein Hosseini coming on in his place.
What on earth are we doing? In 2022, we still don’t have people strong enough to look after footballers who are concussed. Players want to stay on, and never more so than when their minds are weakened by head trauma. The physios clearly knew he wasn’t fit to continue, so too did the referee. And yet we had to spend 10 minutes watching an utterly unedifying process.
Later on, when England’s Harry Maguire went down with a knock to the head he was meticulously taken through procedures by the medical staff and was immediately withdrawn by head coach Gareth Southgate. Yet for some reason, the officials refused to allow the substitution to take place until after a further passage of play, leaving England with 10 players momentarily. Where is the motivation for teams to do the right thing?
This was a match which kicked off to the background noise caused by Fifa’s decision to enforce the withdrawal of planned captain’s armbands from nations including England which promote LGBTQ+ causes. The ‘OneLove’-emblazoned armlet was deemed a political statement, and the English FA were warned that skipper Harry Kane would be booked if he entered the field wearing it instead of the stock Fifa-ordained version.
Chuck in the fact many fans missed the start of the match because of issues with Fifa’s ticketing app, and this World Cup has done nothing so far to redeem the image of the world governing body. At a time when they need every piece of positivity to ward off critics, Fifa are instead building up the case against themselves.
With Kane and the FA backing down over the armband, England went on to hammer Iran as expected. Jude Bellingham opened the scoring in the 35th minute with a header from Luke Shaw’s cross and Bukayo Saka netted from a Harry Maguire nod-down soon after. By the time Raheem Sterling knocked home Kane’s centre in the first of 14 minutes added at the end of the first half due to Beiranvand’s injury, a landslide looked guaranteed.
Saka added his second when the Iran defence stood off him as he cut in off the right, but underdogs' big moment came minutes later when Mehdi Taremi peeled off the back of Maguire to fire home brilliantly off the underside of the bar. The four-goal lead was restored by substitute Marcus Rashford almost as soon as he had come on, and fellow replacements Callum Wilson and Jack Grealish combined for the latter to slide home the sixth in the 90th minute. There was still time for Iran to be given a 103rd-minute penalty after a Var check, with Taremi slotting past Jordan Pickford after being fouled by a combination of John Stones and Luke Shaw.
Despite the late concession, England will undoubtedly face tougher opposition in the remainder of this competition. Fifa, though, are racking up bigger and louder opponents by the day.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
