2023, The Year of Downfall, The Year of Defeat for Iranian Sports

The year 2023 was filled with failures and regrets for Iranian sports, particularly in football, which is the most popular and followed sport in Iran, receiving the most attention and budget. In two major tournaments, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, Iranian football experienced bitter failures. After a humiliating defeat in the World Cup, conceding six goals to England and losing to the USA, Carlos Queiroz parted ways with the national team, and Amir Ghalenoei took over. However, this change could not break the spell of failures, and the team, which its players consider the 'golden generation of Iranian football,' conceded seven goals in five matches of the Asian Cup. Ghalenoei's ambitious students lost 3-0 to Qatar, extending Iran's regret for championship in the Asian Cup to over half a century. Worse still, the national team lost its standing among the people, with its supporters becoming a group of government spectators who were a constant presence at the team's matches in Qatar. The public's anger towards this government team turned into outrage after news emerged about the receipt of billion-dollar car vouchers, which also raised the voices of athletes from other sports. In Asia's champions, crossing the regime's red lines, Persepolis, after securing a domestic double by winning both the league and the cup, faced defeat against Al-Duhail of Qatar in the AFC Champions League in front of sixty thousand of its fans and was eliminated. Esteghlal, which had previously missed the Champions League due to lying, debt, and failure to obtain a professional license, and Nassaji, like Persepolis, was eliminated in the group stage. Sepahan faced a major embarrassment at home after a match against Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia, which ended in a 3-0 loss, resulting in a fine and a ban on hosting for the Isfahan representative due to a statue of Qassem Soleimani. The statue was removed, a $200,000 fine was paid, and the red lines of the Islamic Republic were erased. Hamid Sajjadi, the former sports minister, left a disappointing record, becoming a powerless pawn of the IRGC and intelligence, receiving two yellow cards from parliament. Despite claiming he would continue his work with power, Sajjadi suddenly resigned, and Kiomars Hashemi, who had rapidly climbed the ranks, replaced him. Contrary to the Islamic Republic's unfounded claims of cooperation in hosting the 2022 World Cup, the small Gulf nation successfully hosted the World Cup 2022 and the Asian Cup 2023 without any assistance from the Islamic Republic. The reconstruction of the western stands of Azadi Stadium dragged into its fourth year, becoming a subject of humor. In the Hangzhou Asian Games, one of the worst results for Iran's sports caravan was recorded, with Iran falling three places to seventh in the medal table. In the past 45 years, only the 2002 Busan Games had such an unexpected result. In Hangzhou, if it weren't for the medals in the final days of wrestling, a humiliating record might have been set. In the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, stars like Hassan Yazdani and Mohammad Reza Gerayee, Olympic champions, failed to succeed. Alireza Dabir, the head of the wrestling federation, completed his escape by replacing Mohsen Kaveh with Pejman Dorostkar. Weightlifting, which is Iran's first medal-winning sport in the Olympics, participated with 12 weightlifters in the World Championships in Saudi Arabia, returning home with only two gold medals and one bronze. Iranian volleyball, in its downward trajectory, missed the Olympic quota for the 2024 Paris Games after losing in the final of the Asian Championships in Urmia against Japan. Volleyball also fell in the Nations League and ended 2023 with the replacement of Mohammad Reza Davarzani with Milad Taghavi. Basketball continued to fail, and after failing in the World Cup and missing the Olympic quota, the loss in the quarter-finals of the Asian Games against the Philippines showed that the federation under Javad Davari is on a downward slope. The failures were not limited to basketball; in handball, Alireza Pakdel and his teammates also failed to fulfill their promises. The repeat of the second-to-last position for women's handball in the World Championship and the failure to secure an Olympic quota in men's competitions indicated failure. Taekwondo, under Hadi Saei's management, missed out on a gold medal for the first time in the Asian Games and recorded the worst result, finishing sixth in the World Championships in the Czech Republic, and received Olympic quotas in trickles. After 45 years, the Islamic Republic was forced to open the doors of football stadiums to women due to pressure from FIFA and AFC, allowing a few female spectators to attend the Iranian Premier League matches. This came after girls and women in Iran, like the Blue Girl, sacrificed their lives to enter stadiums. Interestingly, a cleric named Rahmatollah Beigdaeli became the voice of all sports enthusiasts, questioning: If allowing women into stadiums was religiously forbidden, why did you retreat? If it wasn't forbidden, why did you oppose it for years? However, the revelations of a female athlete from Hong Kong during the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tehran regarding the limitations faced by female athletes in Iran gained widespread media coverage and highlighted the true face of gender discrimination in the Islamic Republic's sports. Like previous years, 2023 was also a year of elite athletes fleeing, with Mohsen Babasafari, the national handball team's goalkeeper, Shokoufeh Safari, a national volleyball player, Pouria Saveh Shamshaki and Marjan Kalehr, national skiers, Atefeh Ahmadi, the flag bearer of the Winter Games, Erfan Nazemi, an Olympic taekwondo athlete, Mehrodad Mardani, a bronze medalist in the Asian Games, and Mahsa Pourrahmati and Mohammad Rahimi, national fencers, joining the ranks of athletes who left the country. Iranian sports ended 2023 by cherishing the brilliance of the unassuming players of the national beach football team, as well as stars like Farzaneh Fasihi in athletics, Amir Hossein Zarei in wrestling, and Hadi Choopan, the Mr. Olympia and Arnold Classic champion. With a week-long delay, Ebrahim Raisi approved Hamid Sajjadi's resignation from the Ministry of Sports, marking the end of the dream of the 2023 Asian Cup; Iran lost to Qatar after a difficult victory against Syria, facing Japan in the quarter-finals amidst controversy over the refereeing by Alireza Faghani.