Mesbah Yazdi: Watching Football Deprives Humans of Heavenly Joys

Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, head of the 'Imam Khomeini' Institute, has stated that playing video games and watching football matches leads to 'fatigue' and deprives humans of 'heavenly pleasures.' According to a report on Friday (June 18) by Mashregh News, Mesbah Yazdi made these remarks on Thursday evening during an ethics class at Ali Khamenei's office in Qom. He criticized 'worldly entertainments' that have occupied many people today, adding that people gain 'nothing' from video games and watching football. The 'spiritual father of the Steadfast Front' further stated, 'The end of these games is fatigue,' and sometimes a person feels upset because they see their life passing by without doing anything, which is why they turn to entertainments to not feel the passage of time. He claimed that being deceived by 'the glitz and glamour of the world' leads to missing out on 'heavenly pleasures,' stating that 'heavenly pleasures require no effort or fatigue, and a person can enjoy these pleasures without any limitations.' Mesbah Yazdi advised attendees of his ethics class not to lose 'heavenly pleasures, which are far superior in terms of time, type, and duration' for the sake of 'instant and limited worldly pleasures.' These remarks from the conservative cleric come at a time when the European Championship 2016 is ongoing, capturing the football fever of many people around the world, including citizens of Iran. Watching domestic and international football matches has many fans in Iran, and the sports program '90' is among the popular television shows in the country. Previously, Hassan Abbasi, a conservative political-cultural activist, described this program as a sign of the 'moral decline' of Iranian society and called for breaking the 'idol' of the doctor, footballer, and artist. He stated that the fact that a program airs at midnight and five million people stay awake to find out who pulled another player's shirt in a match is a sign of 'moral decline' in society. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander of the Basij Organization, also implicitly introduced the sports program '90' as a program to 'distract' the youth and criticized the 'pricing' of athletes. He said, 'With fights and storytelling and stating that millions of text messages have been sent to a program, they want to distract the youth.' Naqdi's reference is to the '90' program, which usually polls the public via text messages about the most important sports events.