Ministers of Sport, Imperial State of Iran, Provisional Government of the Iranian Peoples Republic, Council of State of the Iranian State
Has there ever been a regime as obsessed with sporting infrastructure projects as that of the Shah? From an audacious bid to host the 1978 World Cup (awarded instead to the populist Peronist Argentina) to the successful bid for a summer olympics in Tehran, the country staked huge amounts of prestige on vanity projects as part of the White Revolution. The success in staging the 1974 Asian Games encouraged Iran to bid at full speed for the competition, with the Americans eventually dropping out in support of their bid against Moscow, which was vying to become the first city in the Communist bloc to successfully stage the event.
Tehran's win, coupled with Argentina's own military government's tight embrace of the potential of sporting prestige, politicised the sporting events in a way not seen since the extravaganzas staged by Mussolini and Hitler in the 1930s. As part of the preparations, the Iranian government began a huge funding project with the Ministry of Sport transformed into a fiefdom for regime ultraloyalists. As part of the programme, a budget of some $350mn was set aside to complete the construction of the various Olympic complexes, including an aquatic centre designed in the style of a Parthian ampitheatre and a velodrome inspired by the horse and chariot races of ancient Persia.
While endemic corruption effected the construction efforts, the use of military conscripts, an essentially unlimited budget (no exact figure has ever been provided for how much was spent on the venues themselves, but estimates of 2.5-10% of Iran's GDP have been speculated) and a propaganda machine built around imperial glory ensured that the various complexes, with the exception of some of the venues for minor sports, were completed, with the regime targeting Iranian gold medals in archery, wrestling, fencing and weightlifting, as well as strong showings in athletics and football, with the national football side having won three consecutive Asian Cups.
Such was the progress that the IOC, a body who had never seen an authoritarian regime they didn't like, hailed the Iranian efforts as marking a real seachange moment for sports events within the Middle East. The games should then have been the apotheosis of a regime which had long celebrated supposed heritage with the ancient Persian emperors who had fought Rome to a standstill in the classical era. And yet, such is the path of history that this was not the case, for the regime collapsed during the "Anarchy" as Iran's long festering resentments towards the regime burst forth in 1978, and a period of collapse intervened, but did not wash away the Shah completely.
The provisional governments, formed in the aftermath of his abdication, were united only in their disdain for the former Sun Emperor, and collapses were continuous, while tensions between the disparate member parties (who ran the gmaut from the broad democratic opposition, the long-suppressed communists and various Islamist movements) saw Prime Ministers rise and fall - while the lucrative sports ministry (second only to the oil and defence offices) remained firmly in the hands of the armed forces, who soon intervened, cast out the politicians and established a junta with a regency council (no doubt bringing a wry smile to Francoist and IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.) The Olympic Centre, gleaming in the white heat of a counterrevolution, stood aloof from such concerns, as indeed the Olympic movement, which saw a boycott of the games from the Communist bloc, several Middle Eastern nations and various members of the non-aligned movement in protest at the new regime's dreadful human rights record.
As a result, the opening ceremony saw seventy-four nations emerge under the Olympic flag, in a stadium which had seen mass incarceration, brutaility and executions as part of the military counterrevolution. Black comedy in marble arches had never had such hubris.
Hassan Pakravan, Minister of Sport (SAVAK), 1973 - 1975
Major General Ali Motazed, Minister of Sport and Director of the Olympic Programme (Army), 1975 - 1978
General Officer Hassan Toufanian, Minister of Sport, Director of the Olympic Programme and Deputy Minister of Defence (Air Force), 1978 - 1979
Saber Mohammadzadeh, Minister of Sport & Director of the Olympic Programme, Tudeh Party, 1979
Major General Ali Motazed, Minister of Sport and Director of the Olympic Programme (Army), 1975 - 1978
General Officer Hassan Toufanian, Minister of Sport, Director of the Olympic Programme and Deputy Minister of Defence (Air Force), 1978 - 1979
Saber Mohammadzadeh, Minister of Sport & Director of the Olympic Programme, Tudeh Party, 1979
Amir Khosrow Afshar, Minister of Sport & Olympiad, Independent, 1979
Karim Sanjabi, Minister of Sport & Director General Olympiad, National Front, 1979
Kamal Habibollahi, Minister of Sport & Director General of the Iranian Olympic Hosting Committee (Navy), 1979 -
Has there ever been a regime as obsessed with sporting infrastructure projects as that of the Shah? From an audacious bid to host the 1978 World Cup (awarded instead to the populist Peronist Argentina) to the successful bid for a summer olympics in Tehran, the country staked huge amounts of prestige on vanity projects as part of the White Revolution. The success in staging the 1974 Asian Games encouraged Iran to bid at full speed for the competition, with the Americans eventually dropping out in support of their bid against Moscow, which was vying to become the first city in the Communist bloc to successfully stage the event.
Tehran's win, coupled with Argentina's own military government's tight embrace of the potential of sporting prestige, politicised the sporting events in a way not seen since the extravaganzas staged by Mussolini and Hitler in the 1930s. As part of the preparations, the Iranian government began a huge funding project with the Ministry of Sport transformed into a fiefdom for regime ultraloyalists. As part of the programme, a budget of some $350mn was set aside to complete the construction of the various Olympic complexes, including an aquatic centre designed in the style of a Parthian ampitheatre and a velodrome inspired by the horse and chariot races of ancient Persia.
While endemic corruption effected the construction efforts, the use of military conscripts, an essentially unlimited budget (no exact figure has ever been provided for how much was spent on the venues themselves, but estimates of 2.5-10% of Iran's GDP have been speculated) and a propaganda machine built around imperial glory ensured that the various complexes, with the exception of some of the venues for minor sports, were completed, with the regime targeting Iranian gold medals in archery, wrestling, fencing and weightlifting, as well as strong showings in athletics and football, with the national football side having won three consecutive Asian Cups.
Such was the progress that the IOC, a body who had never seen an authoritarian regime they didn't like, hailed the Iranian efforts as marking a real seachange moment for sports events within the Middle East. The games should then have been the apotheosis of a regime which had long celebrated supposed heritage with the ancient Persian emperors who had fought Rome to a standstill in the classical era. And yet, such is the path of history that this was not the case, for the regime collapsed during the "Anarchy" as Iran's long festering resentments towards the regime burst forth in 1978, and a period of collapse intervened, but did not wash away the Shah completely.
The provisional governments, formed in the aftermath of his abdication, were united only in their disdain for the former Sun Emperor, and collapses were continuous, while tensions between the disparate member parties (who ran the gmaut from the broad democratic opposition, the long-suppressed communists and various Islamist movements) saw Prime Ministers rise and fall - while the lucrative sports ministry (second only to the oil and defence offices) remained firmly in the hands of the armed forces, who soon intervened, cast out the politicians and established a junta with a regency council (no doubt bringing a wry smile to Francoist and IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.) The Olympic Centre, gleaming in the white heat of a counterrevolution, stood aloof from such concerns, as indeed the Olympic movement, which saw a boycott of the games from the Communist bloc, several Middle Eastern nations and various members of the non-aligned movement in protest at the new regime's dreadful human rights record.
As a result, the opening ceremony saw seventy-four nations emerge under the Olympic flag, in a stadium which had seen mass incarceration, brutaility and executions as part of the military counterrevolution. Black comedy in marble arches had never had such hubris.