November 10 – Ireland take on the Axis of Evil

IT’S always fun when sports and politics mix. As George Orwell once said, “sport is war minus the shooting”, and football has indeed been the cause of wars and helped break down countless social barriers. Today in 2001 the Republic of Ireland entered the political stratosphere when they took on Iran in the first leg of their World Cup 2002 playoff.

Ireland’s reward for finishing second in their group, ahead of Holland, was to be randomly drawn against the winners of the Asian Football Confederation’s playoff in a scrap for the last spot in the World Cup Finals in South Korea and Japan. Here they faced Iran who had beaten the UAE 4-0 on aggregate.

Coming two months after the 9/11 attacks and shortly before George Bush would include Iran in his ‘axis of evil’ speech the game had a distinctly politicised edge. Much was made of the fact women had been banned from watching football in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Iranian authorities invoked this ban to protect them from the bad language and rude gestures of male fans and crowd noise on television coverage would be turned down so no female viewers at home would be offended.

Twenty Irishwomen were eventually allowed into to the stadium to watch the game, all following a strict dress code of a long coat, long trousers, and their heads covered.

The first leg in Dublin saw the Leeds United pair of Ian Harte and Robbie Keane give the Irish a two-goal lead to take over to Iran, where a gutsy 1-0 loss with a blockbusting performance from Shay Given meant that Irish eyes were smiling, as Mick McCarthy had lead his team to the biggest stage for the first time since their memorable run in USA 1994.

After a seven-hour flight, the Irish returned home as heroes, and preparations for the tournament in South Korea and Japan begun in earnest. If you want to know how well they went, ask Roy Keane.

Here’s some Iranian footage below as they took on the USA in one of the 1998 World Cups biggest games, but we want all you ladies watching to turn down the volume in case you hear anything you shouldn’t. And you’d better not come back tomorrow, as we’ve a tale of a manager who’s proud of his ‘traditional’ values.