Iranian Basket Cases
The Iranians have once again made a mockery of the Olympic spirit, this time withdrawing from a Paralympics basketball quarterfinal match with Big Satan and demanding compensation.
All because the game was “rescheduled“.
The Iranian wheelchair basketball team has withdrawn from their quarterfinal match against the United States at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, PressTV reported.
Iran decided to walk out when the match, which was originally scheduled at 11:15 am, was rescheduled to 9:00 am on Saturday.
The organizers subsequently announced that the Iranian side had therefore lost the match by ‘forfeit’, and the USA progressed to the semifinals.
“Iran was scheduled to play against the United States at 11:15 after the game between Canada and Israel but the time was suddenly changed to 9:00 without any logical reasons,” said head of Iran’s delegation in Beijing paralympic Games, Ghafour Kargari on Saturday.
“We wrote a letter of complaint to the Canadian President of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Ms. Maureen Orchard and asked her to change the game time back to 11:15 but she refused,” he added.
Kargari pointed out that the secretary general of Iran’s National Paralympics Committee (NPC), Masoud Ashrafi, wrote a letter to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and announced Iran’s withdrawal of the wheelchair basketball tournament.
Kargari further said that Iran has decided to write another letter to the Beijing wheelchair basketball organizers to ask for compensation because a big budget was spent to prepare the team for the Beijing Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, did any of you notice the real news story here?
I’ll repeat the relevant paragraph:
“Iran was scheduled to play against the United States at 11:15 after the game between Canada and Israel but the time was suddenly changed to 9:00 without any logical reasons,” said head of Iran’s delegation in Beijing paralympic Games, Ghafour Kargari on Saturday.
The answer is, of course, that the head of Iran’s delegation mentioned Israel by name, and not as the “Zionist entity” or “little Satan.”
I’m guessing he may end up in the next Paralympics – as a contestant.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
Iranians (persians) are good people(except the mullahs of course), they have been cursed by Islam for centuries, I feel bad for the athletes being used for political purposes
"Iran decided to walk out when the match…" Shouldn't that be *roll* out of the match? Yes, I'm a terrible person.
Zach — indeed, you are a terrible person. I find this bit of news fairly strange – primarily because Iran has competed in many instances with the US. I'm fairly sure there is more to the story than we know (or than you chose to publish?)
shmo-ha-med, Actually, I posted everything I know about it. But feel free to enlighten us all.