Not content to only brighten one Olympics this year, Iran is at it again. This time the Islamic Republic, rather than facing the United States in a quarterfinal men’s wheelchair basketball game, has forfeited and whined about the schedule.
The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) today announced that the men’s team from I.R. Iran has withdrawn from the tournament due to dissatisfaction with the draw proposed for the cross-over round and subsequent schedule. [emphasis mine -melo]
Consequently, the game USA vs. Iran will be decided by IWBF Rulebook Rule 4, Article 20, “Game lost by Forfeit.” The USA will be awarded the win by the score of 20:0 in accordance with the applicable rule and will progress to the semi-finals.
The IWBF and the IPC regret this decision taken by Iran and the disruption caused to the tournament. Despite this occurrence, the IWBF iand the IPC are certain that the remaining teams will continue to participate to their best and an outstanding Gold medal game will be hosted on 16 September.
Perhaps those good sports in the Islamic Republic can find some way to despoil the Special Olympics’ 2009 World Winter Games, too.
Filed under: Idiocy, Iran, Sports | Tagged: Sports, Iran, Sportsmanship, Para-Olympics, Wheelchair Basketball
As long as it means we still won, who cares if they forfeited?
U S A!
U S A!
U S A!
Now if we can just get the Afghanis to forfeit at the men’s donkey basketball world championships, we can get the men’s basketball trifecta this year.
“To the best of my knowledge it was never an issue of who they were playing. In the discussions yesterday, they never voiced any concern about playing the United States. If they could have the game moved to 11:15 [a.m. local time in Beijing], they said they would show up and they would play against United States.”
Orchard, who speaks highly of Mahmoud Khosravivafa, the president of Iran’s National Paralympic Committee and Iran Doust, their Chef de Mission, says she received a call at about 10:30 a.m. on Friday morning in Beijing from a person identifying himself the assistant Chef de Mission who said there was a mistake in the draw and that they were entitled to play 11:15 a.m. rather than 9:00 a.m.
“They suggested to us that we tried to make a change on that,” said Orchard. “We did and we were not able to facilitate changes. We informed them that the schedule would stand and they informed us they would not play.”
Members of the Iranian television crew taking advantage of the free shoulder massage service in the main press center said they had been prepared to televise the game live back to Iran and that they would not have been able to do so with the earlier start. They also said that the team itself was taking the withdrawal very hard.
From another source:
The U.S.-Iran quarterfinal was originally scheduled to be played at 11:15 a.m., following the first quarterfinal game between Canada and Israel at 9 a.m. But the starting times were switched, with no official announcement why the change was made.
“Each match should be done one after another,” Iran deputy chef de mission Iran Doust said. “But unfortunately, concerning our match they didn’t observe the order and that’s the reason (for pulling out).”
The game was to have aired live on Iranian television.
The U.S. team received notice of the time change about 24 hours before the match, said Jeannine Hansen, a spokeswoman for the American delegation. Teams were told before the Paralympics that competition times could change for television broadcasts or other reasons, she said.
“We agreed to the time change for the game with Iran, but we weren’t given a specific reason,” Hansen said.
Gee… I don’t recall saying that the forfeit had anything to do with whom Iran was playing. Regardless of whom their next opponent was, it’s still bad sportsmanship on the part of the Iranian delegation and deprives their athletes the chance to enjoy the competition and prove themselves on the court.