Political football

"Freedom for footballers" says the slogan on Nike's World Cup promotion poster in a Paris subway (above). Unfortunately, in the eyes of many, this particular advertising campaign conjures images of anything but freedom. Human rights organisations protested that the poster's "totalitarian" design evoked a style heavily associated with France's Vichy regime during the second World War. The promotion campaign, which featured the head of Eric Cantona, is now being withdrawn. Amnesty International have presented an alternative World Cup "team" in Paris to mark the publication of their annual report, selecting women and men whose human rights have been violated in countries competing in France. On the team are "players" from Brazil, Japan, Tunisia, Cameroon, South Korea, the US, Croatia, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

Iran versus the US was always going to be the most politically charged first-round encounter of this World Cup. And it looks like nobody is going to be disappointed.

Yesterday the Iranians revealed that they are considering pulling out of France 98. They are upset, they say, at the recent airing on French television of an American film seen as projecting a negative image of Iran.

For those of you who didn't watch this particular epic on RTE 1 last night (wonder what sanction the Iranians have in mind for us), Not without my daughter recounts the "true story" of US citizen Betty Mahmoody, who married an Iranian and went to live in Iran with her daughter. When her husband decided to stay, her passport was taken from her and she was not allowed to leave the country. She finally escaped with the girl.

But FIFA head Sepp Blatter is optimistic that Iran will turn up for their Group F match in Lyon and he is confident that the French police are capable of dealing with any problems - they should be, after all they've been practising on the English all week.