Mohammad Dadkan's Subtle Remarks: We Wanted to Become an Islamic Japan, Instead We Became an Islamic North Korea

Mohammad Dadkan, the former president of the Iranian Football Federation, who has long criticized the management situation in the country, made further critical remarks about the state and policies in the country in an interview published by the Arman-e-Melli newspaper on Thursday, July 20. He stated: 'If the North Korean leader says the door is open in the morning, he himself won't stay. If the bridge between the two Koreas is left open, no one will remain in North Korea. Now we, who wanted to become an Islamic Japan, have become an Islamic North Korea.' His reference is to quotes from some Iranian politicians, including Gholamali Haddad Adel, a conservative close to Khamenei, who in 2003 stated that Iran would become an Islamic Japan. In this interview, Dadkan also criticized the suppression of protesters, saying: 'What do you want to achieve with pressure and arrests? You yourself say we have arrested 92,000 people. You say 20 million people have legal cases, which means, considering their family members, 60 million people are involved. If we try to fix everything with force, what will happen in the end?' He also commented on the removal of protesting athletes, saying: 'I curse the management that is in Persepolis. They sidelined Karim Bagheri. Not a single player asks why? If I were a manager and this happened, I wouldn't give the team. If I were a player, I wouldn't play. You don't say a word. Because they have been told from outside to give a player three billion, give seven billion. A ten-billion player should get twenty billion. The player is under their control. They have bought everyone with money. So what about ethics, honor, and religion?' He criticized the treatment of opponents of compulsory hijab, saying: 'My own family are all veiled, but I never protest against anyone for a strand of hair. Can you shoot someone in the eye for a strand of hair? Can you throw someone to the ground and beat them just because their hair is out? And tomorrow you say, no, we didn't hit! So who has made these people blind? Who killed those who have died? Did I do it?' Mohammad Dadkan led one of the most successful periods of Iranian football until 2006 when he took Iran to the World Cup, but he was dismissed by Ahmadinejad's government afterward. In this interview, he implicitly referred to the influence of security and intelligence agencies in sports and football, stating: 'The Ministry of Sports and the Football Federation do not have independence. The Federation had no role in bringing in Ghalenoei. I cannot say it more clearly.'