Sad Soleimani the only loser and Rogge must act

IRAN either want to be part of the international sporting community - or they don't. They cannot continue to find a perverse halfway house in which they compete only against nations they like.

POLITICAL PAWN: Iran's Mohammad Soleimani (left) confronts his opponent American Gregory English during the 48kg taekwondo semi-finals at the Youth Olympic Games. He withdrew from the final against an Israeli athlete, citing injury (Xinhua)

Team officials who withdrew Mohammad Soleimani from his taekwondo final at the Youth Olympic Games - because he was due to take on Israel's Gil Haimovitz - should be ashamed, although in fairness they were probably only obeying orders from 'back home'.

They are just as much pawns in the game as their unfortunate teenage charge - resistance, if you value your job and possibly even safety, is futile.

Iran claimed their man was injured - Soleimani even going through the charade of being taken by ambulance to hospital, where he underwent an MRI scan.

Unsurprisingly the following day he 'felt better'.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge can talk forever about inspiring the youth of the world via the spirit of sportsmanship but he should finally condemn the actions of the Iranian regime, pulling the strings behind their team, in the strongest possible language. 

Iran either want to be part of the international sporting community - or they don't. They cannot continue to find a perverse halfway house in which they compete only against nations they like." Sportbeat's James Toney

Of course, he won't, the IOC President is too much of a diplomat for that, even though the much talked about Olympic Charter, states all teams must be free of political influence.

In the build-up to the Beijing Olympics, Iraqi athletes faced being banned after their government replaced the country's Olympic committee with its own appointees.

In the end the matter was finally resolved but Iran continue play fast and loose with the rules - and their athletes, who train hard for success, are the only losers.

They are the modern day equivalent of those who fell victim to East Germany's reviled system of institutionalised doping during the 1970's and 1980's.

Iranian Arash Miresmaeili, a two-time world judo champion, refused to compete against Israel's Ehud Vaks in the opening round of Olympic judo competition in Athens. At the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, Iran's wheelchair basketball team forfeited their game against the United States and withdrew from the competition, avoiding a possible match against Israel in the next stage.

A few weeks earlier at the Olympics, Iranian swimmer Mohammad Alirezaei refused to race in a preliminary heat because Israeli athlete Tom Beeri was competing in the same pool.

Young athletes can be victims of those who take advantage of their innocence to pedal performance enhancing drugs or - even worse - those who abuse their trust with sexual advances.

And Soleimani - who it must be remembered is just 16 - won't be the last athlete to be a victim of the continuing sporting stand-off between Iran and Israel. 

He may go home a hero - his silver medal worth much more in propaganda terms than a prospect of a defeat to an Israeli in the final - but Rogge's vision, commendable if a little cliched, will be damaged until he finally uses his privileged bully pulpit to effect some real change in this ongoing scandal.

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