The lassitude of the players, more inert than inept, made many Iranians assume they had been either bribed or threatened to ensure no repetition of the unseemly 1997 celebrations.
Yet I have often thought, If only the mole had burrowed down and clung on, he would have seen the land he had loathed and betrayed taken over by a woman who shared every inch of his frustration at its lassitude and pitiful want of pride.