Sport

The Dictator’s Team

A piece looking at how Syria’s dictatorship has used football to try to win hearts and minds, and the terrible situations players have been put into, even as their national team makes an unlikely bid for World Cup qualification.

A Journey into the Wild, Complex and Unique World of Football in Iran

As is so often the case with sport, this piece on football in Iran contains numerous insights about society and politics, as women fight to be allowed to to attend matches, players face sanctions for making political statements, and the game is buffeted by revolution and regime change. Amidst all this, the passion of the fans is as intense as anywhere else in the world.