If that was not the world’s biggest prank , then I don’t know what it.
It all happened early Friday evening in Yadegar Imam Stadium in Tabriz, the home of Tractorsazi team which was playing for the Championship title for the first time in its history. The Tabrizi team needed to win the match against arch rival Naft , themselves needing the 3 points to win the title.
The stadium was over filled to the rim. As usual in Iranian stadiums, there was little regards for safety and regulation. Eyewitnesses in the stadium have mentioned hundreds or thousands of seats that were occupied by two persons. All emergency exits and pathways were occupied by the passionate Tabrizi fans that were ready to enjoy the mother of all celebrations at the end of the game. That would be Tractorsazi’s Persian Gulf League title season 2014/15.
There was a third team involved in the last day title race, and that was Sepahan Esfahan playing at home against Saipa. Sepahan, needed to win but also needed the match in Tabriz between Tractorsazi and Naft Tehran to end in a draw for Sepahan to win the title.
All was going well for Tractorsazi and they were 3-1 up in the second half and well on the way for the celebration of the century. Sepahan two goal advantage against Saipa was meaningless. But then disaster struck.
Team Melli veteran midfielder Andranik Teymourian , the assist provider for the first goal and scorer of 2nd for Tractorsazi was sent off a couple of minutes after his team’s 3rd goal. The rest was all downhill for the Tabrizi team. Naft scored twice to equalize and make it 3-3 and that was the result after Alireza Faghani blew his whistle at the end of the game.
Millions of TV audiences were astonished by the celebrations that ensued. It was so unreal, illusionary, bordering a joke. Nowhere in the world, have fans celebrated their team becoming second like these fans were doing in Tabriz. A pitch invasion that threatened the safety of the players, huge chanting and celebration for those in the stands who could not join the mass on the pitch , waving flags, scenes of frenzy captured by the Iranian TV was part of this incredible event.
To top it all , the local TV commentator, who had no idea why the fans are behaving like that but acted and reasoned that the fans in Tabriz are unique in the world , and even celebrate their team losing the style in style !!
There was something that was definitely not right……Surreal , false and comical in all that.
And then the truth was revealed. Someone has played the biggest prank of them all on the unsuspecting Tabrizi fans.
It all started when a few minutes before the end of the match, the Public Address announcement urged the fans to be ready for the celebration. When the match finished, someone has informed the bench of Tractorsazi that the match in Esfahan ended 2-2 while the fact was Sepahan have won it 2-0.
The euphoria began, the celebrations, while truly incredible and exuberant was all the result of one of the biggest pranks in the history.
The follow up to this incredibly heart breaking episode for the Tabrizi fans, while their rivals had the biggest laugh, was even sillier than the event itself. It goes beyond saying that lying, rumor mongering and fabrication of news is institutional and a way of life in Iran. At least 80,000 people were in the stadium, many carrying radios and smartphones that have all the information they needed about the match in Esfahan and elsewhere in Iran. How on earth this mass was cheated into believing the lies is itself quite incredible.
One Azerbaijani official claimed that there was a total loss of communication in the stadium, a seriously retarded claim, while others demanded that people responsible for this are put to trial and severely punished.
Ando Teymourian , in the aftermath of this prank said that Friday was one of his darkest days in football. “Not only the result itself and the loss of the title in the last quarter of the match was heart breaking but the false news that lead the masses in wild celebration and then realizing it was all false, just added a huge insult to the injury. I am really sorry for the fans. I do apologize to every warm blooded Tabrizi fan. This is all I can say.”