Banning Iran from the World Cup: bad idea.

John McCain wants to ban Iran from the World Cup. It’s hardly a new idea but still a bad proposal. Banning Iran from the World Cup will only fuel popular anger in Iran and bolster the regime and its efforts to portray Iran as the victim of the West. MPs in Germany have considered the ...

608859_ali_daei_goal.thumbnail5.jpg
608859_ali_daei_goal.thumbnail5.jpg

John McCain wants to ban Iran from the World Cup. It's hardly a new idea but still a bad proposal. Banning Iran from the World Cup will only fuel popular anger in Iran and bolster the regime and its efforts to portray Iran as the victim of the West. MPs in Germany have considered the idea in response to Ahmadinejad's statements about the Holocaust and support for an aggressive nuclear program.

John McCain wants to ban Iran from the World Cup. It’s hardly a new idea but still a bad proposal. Banning Iran from the World Cup will only fuel popular anger in Iran and bolster the regime and its efforts to portray Iran as the victim of the West. MPs in Germany have considered the idea in response to Ahmadinejad’s statements about the Holocaust and support for an aggressive nuclear program.

There’s no way that a soccer-crazy Iranian population will stop and say, “You know, we didn’t want to see Ali Daei, our national superstar and the world’s top scorer in international matches, play anyway. Let’s sit this one out and really think about the wisdom of pursuing our incredibly popular nuclear program.” It’s not going to happen. Daei already appears on postage stamps in Iran. Better to hope that Iran just gets a good thumping in its games.

The only proposal that could possibly be worse: replacing Iran with Israel’s team.

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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