Families of Flight PS752 victims call for cancellation of soccer match with Iran

Families who lost loved ones in the destruction of Flight PS752 are demanding that Canada Soccer abandon its plan to host Iran for a men's soccer friendly next month in Vancouver.

The families call the planned match a slap in the face and say they want the federal government to refuse to grant visas to Iranian soccer players and those travelling with the team.

"They have no understanding, they have no sympathy, they have no hearts, in my opinion, Canada Soccer," said Hamed Esmaeilion, spokesperson for the association representing families. His wife and 9-year-old daughter died on the flight.

"I feel betrayed by the organization and betrayed by the government ... This is a way to normalize the relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It's called sports-washing."

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down the Ukrainian jetliner with a pair of surface-to-air missiles shortly after takeoff in Tehran in 2020, killing all 176 people onboard, including 85 Canadians and permanent residents. 

Iran has blamed a series of human errors for the downing of the commercial plane. Canada's own forensic analysis found that the IRGC's "recklessness, incompetence, and wanton disregard for human life" was to blame.

A UN special rapporteur went further, accusing Iranian authorities of multiple violations of human rights and international law in the lead-up to the missile attack and its aftermath.

Since then, victims' families have said they've faced intimidation, harassment and threats that they believe are coming from the Iranian regime.

The families say this soccer match opens up the border to the IRGC and they wonder whether Iranian intelligence agents will travel with the team to Canada.

Kambiz Foroohar, a journalist and strategic consultant focusing on Iran, has written that in recent decades most sports clubs in Iran have been "taken over by political or security-military organizations, with former Revolutionary guards holding the top positions."

"Because of football's popularity, there is significant involvement by regime insiders," he wrote on the Middle East Institute's website.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told CBC News that arranging the game was not a good idea and that Canada Soccer needs to explain itself. Asked whether the federal government might refuse to grant visas to the visiting Iranian team, Trudeau did not answer.

"This was a choice by [Canada Soccer]," Trudeau told a press conference in St. John's. "I think it wasn't a very good idea to invite the Iranian soccer team here to Canada, but that's something the organizer's going to have to explain."

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