Araz News: Eyes were on Tractor Sazi Azerbaijan this week as international media covered the stunning upset that placed Tractor Sazi in second place in the Iranian Pro League. Widely regarded among the Azerbaijani-Turks living in Iran as the Azerbaijani national team, Azerbaijanis ranging from activists to supporters were hopeful that a win would have put their people and their demands on display internationally. Azerbaijanis in Iran have long complained about discrimination and the hinderance of language and cultural rights for the roughly 30 million strong distinct ethnic group. And since South Azerbaijan is has become one of the most militarized regions in Iran, Tractor Sazi games have become convenient outlets for these demands. Wherever Tractor Sazi plays, but particularly in Tabriz, stadiums can be seen filled to the brim in a sea of team color red as supporters chant “Long Live Azerbaijan” or “Turkish language schools for everyone.” While this aspect of sports politics is rarely covered, James. M. Dorsey of the popular blog The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer had this to say in a recent Huffington Post article:

Stadia in Tabriz have in recent years been the scene of a number of environmental and nationalist protests and clashes with security forces in which fans chanted secessionist slogans. “The main (Iranian concern) is that the idea of Turkism is strengthening in South Azerbaijan,” News.Az, a pro-Azeri news website, quoted Saftar Rahimli, a member of the board of the World Azerbaijani Congress, as saying. Mr. Rahimli was referring to Eastern Azerbaijan by its nationalist Azeri name.

He also quoted Araz News when providing details of the confusion during the game:

The protests centre on a decision by the referee in the last 20 minutes of the game to give a red card to Traktor Sazi midfielder Andranik Teymourian, which allowed Naft Tehran to turn defeat into a tie. ‘The atmosphere within the stadium quickly shifted from celebratory to anger after the referee’s call,” said Araz News operated by the National Resistance Organization of Azerbaijan (ANRO). It said throughout the game fans had been chanting Azerbaijani nationalist slogans.

The Guardian, also featured a brief blurb about the match:

When the final whistle blew at the Tractor Sazi and Naft match in Tabriz, thousands of jubilant Tractor Sazi fans ran on to the pitch to celebrate what they thought was their team’s first ever Iranian Premier League title. Some of the joyous fans kissed the head coach of Tractor Sazi Toni Oliveira, centre, however moments later the celebrations turned sour when it became clear that the result of their rivals Sepahan FC’s match left Tractor Sazi in second place.

AFP, which was shared on Yahoo! Sports, had this to say about the emotions after the game:

When reality dawned for Tractor Sazi’s fans — 90,000 were in a stadium whose official capacity is only 70,000 — the mood changed, seats were smashed and fights broke out.

“We were tricked,” Oliveira, a former Benfica boss who had run around the pitch in celebration only then to learn the bitter truth, told the official IRNA news agency.

Having seen his side slip from a 3-1 lead and lose two second-half goals when one of his players was sent off, Oliveira also blamed the referee for the ill fate that befell his side…

Social media in Iran was filled with people expressing sorrow for Oliveira, insisting his team must have been the victims of dirty tricks.

“Something bizarre happened,” said Naft chief executive Mansour Ghanbarzadeh, trying to explain how joy had turned to outrage.

“We were following the other game on television in the changing room but at 87 minutes in, suddenly the TV, radio and cellphone networks blacked out and we had no means of communication.”

Football blog Deadspin had an even more accusatory tone after referencing the above AFP article:

The AFP article dances around the point, but it seems that some officials—whether these were Persian Gulf Pro League officials, Iranian government officials, or some other officials is unclear (not the least because I don’t speak Farsi)—relayed the misinformation in an attempt to prevent angry Tractor Sazi fans from rioting after losing the title.

That is f**king insane! I won’t pretend to fully understand Iran’s communications system and how quickly or easily everything can be locked down, but did whoever hatched this harebrained scheme really think they had the ability to prevent every one of 90,000 people inside from accessing a TV, transistor radio, cell phone, computer, Twitter, text messaging, or any other way of discovering the real score of the Sepahan game? Here is a Farsi language article that explains better, which reddit user bearded Tortoise helpfully translated:

Interestingly, the media around Tractor Sazi became aware of the real news after getting in touch with their friends in Tehran, but the atmosphere of the stadium did not allow them to quickly spread this news. Another player explains in more detail: “The game had six minutes of stoppage time but the fans poured on the pitch at five minutes and twenty seconds and Mr Faghani [the ref] blew the final whistle. At the time that we saw the people were celebrating, we had thought that Sepahan became champions and some of the guys were aware of the score but the atmosphere was such that we thought it best to let the people be happy so a bad event does not happen.”

The first player says: “Perhaps they had said the game in Isfahan [the Sepahan game] had ended in a tie in order to protect Mr Faghani [the ref] because the people were very upset at the ejection [red card] of Ando and it was possible for something bad to happen to him but anyway thank God that he exited the stadium safely. We were on the field and were playing the game when we saw that fans were celebrating on the field and the rest of it got out of hand.”

The bizarre ending produced some amazing photos. The two photos of Tractor Sazi manager Toni Oliveira (one of Benfica’s best-ever players, he also managed them three different times) perfectly embody American sportscaster Jim McKay’s famous phrase: “The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.”

The Telegraph also weighed in on the controversy, also with a little more of a humorous twist, which was not taken lightly by fans:

As the reality began to dawn on the Tractor players, officials and supporters at the Sahand Stadium, unbridled joy turned to sheer fury at what Oliveira described as a “trick”.

“Something bizarre happened,” Naft Tehran’s chief executive Mansour Ghanbarzadeh told Iran’s IRNA news agency. “We were following the other game on television in the changing room but at 87 minutes in, suddenly the TV, radio and cellphone networks blacked out and we had no means of communication. At that very moment, we were told the match between Sepahan and Saipa had ended with 2-2 draw.”

At this stage, depending on your level of empathy for misled sportsmen, the situation was either very amusing or a little cruel.

Meanwhile Iranian news outlets, particularly the English language Tehran Times, mentioned nothing of the controversy and went as far as to quote Sepahan’s coach with the following:

Sepahan deserved to win the title. Our players believed they could win the title. I dedicate this victory to Sepahan players and the people of Isfahan,” Sepahan coach Hossein Faraki said in the post match news conference. 

Featured image courtesy of Omid Vahabzadeh/Getty Images, AFP.