Iran 'Retires' Soccer Players Over Protest

Iran has barred four of its national soccer players from the field for life after they wore green wristbands during a match last week in apparent support of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, an Iranian pro-government newspaper said. Six players wore the bands; most took them off at halftime, the Guardian notes.

None of the team members got their passports back when they came home after playing South Korea; they are reportedly not permitted to talk to the press. Iranian media have tied the display to this weekend’s arrest of an opposition politician and former head of the country’s soccer governing body. A website said the politician bribed the players to wear the color. (More Iran stories.)