IN 1998 I was lucky enough to go to the World Cup in France. Nick Hancock and I made a comedy documentary called The Outsiders (available on You Tube).
It was an amazing summer bromance, not with Nick, who I’d known for years, but with a bunch of lads from Iran. We trained with them, played pool with them and laughed a lot with them.
There was: Azizi, whose nickname was Suzuki, because he was so loud, Abedzadeh, the goalkeeper, and leader of the team, Mohammadkhani, the laconic hard man, Ali Daei, the playboy centre-forward, and defensive midfielder, Khakpour, who I helped buy a suit in Le Puy. It was amazing to be a part of their World Cup dreams.
They had lost their opening game against Yugoslavia, 1-0. Their next game was against the USA. This obviously had massive political overtones. The press built up the pressure in the daily interviews.
But I wasn’t going to be in France to watch it. I was going to Tehran with producer and cameraman Adam Bullmore. When we arrived there was a lot of excitement.
Iran is football mad and all 60-odd million Iranians were rooting for the team. The Imams were worried. They banned gatherings of over 12 people.
This story is from the August 16, 2020 edition of The Non-League Football Paper.
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This story is from the August 16, 2020 edition of The Non-League Football Paper.
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