(CNN) — Iran’s World Cup defeat by the United States was greeted with celebrations in Tehran and other Iranian cities on Tuesday night, as protesters hailed the country’s exit from the tournament as a blow to the ruling regime.
The nation was knocked out of the tournament in Qatar after its 1-0 defeat on Tuesday, ending a campaign that has been overshadowed by anti-government protests that have raged for months in the country.
However, the safety of Iranian players returning home via the Persian Gulf is cause for concern, after the team initially refused to sing Iran’s national anthem before their first match, in an apparent show of solidarity. with the protesters. Families of the team were also threatened with jailing and torture before the match, a source involved in match security said.
Residents of several Iranian cities cheered from inside their homes and residential buildings moments after the final whistle, which came in the early hours of Wednesday local time, as videos posted on social media showed people honking their horns. from their cars, chanting and whistling.
People in Iran celebrated the loss of the national team to the United States on Tuesday night. Credit: mamlekate/Telegram
“I am happy, this is the government losing to the people,” a witness to the celebrations in a city in the Kurdish region, which CNN will not name for security reasons, told CNN on Wednesday.
The Norway-based Iranian rights group Hengaw posted several videos of similar scenes. People in Paveh are celebrating the defeat of the Iranian national team against the United States in the World Cup in Qatar, and are chanting “Down with the Jash (traitors),” Hengaw said in a post.
Demonstrations have rocked Iran for several months, prompting a deadly crackdown by the authorities. The nationwide uprising began with the death of Mahsa (also known as Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in mid-September after being detained by the country’s morality police. Since then, protesters across Iran have rallied around a series of grievances against the regime.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has declared the country is in a “full-blown human rights crisis” as authorities crack down on protests.
Soccer has become a growing flashpoint in recent weeks as the World Cup has focused world attention on the country’s turmoil.
And the fans who follow the team in Qatar are increasingly divided in terms of their support. “Our team has been hijacked,” Farshad Soheil, a longtime fan, told CNN. “He no longer represents the people of Iran.”
Soheili said Iran’s regime has managed to politicize and weaponize the team, and was critical of the players for not making a bigger statement about the protests. “It was a wasted historic opportunity,” Soheili said.
Before Tuesday’s match, many supporters said they did not want Iran to win. “The reason is not football, but political,” another fan named Farshid, who did not reveal his last name for security reasons, told CNN.
“I have mixed emotions and feelings,” Farshid said from Doha. “I am a passionate supporter of Iran but today unfortunately I cannot be a supporter of the national team due to the current situation as the government tries to hijack the game and the sport and use it as a platform to buy credibility and show that everything that is happening in Iran is normal”.
Farshid claimed that many pro-regime supporters have also attended Iran’s World Cup matches in Qatar and created a very tense environment for other Iranian fans by trying to interfere in their interviews with the media.
Concern for returning players
The Iran team would have progressed to the second round of the World Cup with a win or a draw against the United States, but the team will return home after their elimination in the group stage.
“I’m very sorry on behalf of our players, our group, that we didn’t get our chance to qualify for the next round,” midfielder Saeid Ezatolah told reporters after the match. “I hope our fans and our people in Iran will forgive us. And I’m sorry, that’s all.”
The team’s return will be closely watched amid fears the players will face reprisals for a brief show of support for the protests, which have drawn international attention and praise from human rights groups.
The country’s flag and national anthem have been rejected by protesters as symbols of the current regime. And, following the Iranian players’ refusal to sing Iran’s national anthem in their opening match against England on November 21, a source involved in match security told CNN the players were summoned to a meeting with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The source claimed that they were told that their families they would face “violence and torture” if they did not sing the national anthem or if they joined any political protest against the regime in Tehran.
The players sang the anthem on Tuesday and before their second game against Wales last Friday, which saw Iran win 2-0.
Hours before the game was set to begin on Tuesday, Iranian authorities reported that a former member of the Iranian national soccer team, Parviz Boroumand, who was arrested earlier this month for his criticism of the government, had been released on bail, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Boroumand had been detained in mid-November during protests in Tehran, Iranian media reported. Earlier this Tuesday, Kurdish-Iranian footballer Voria Ghafouri was also released on bail.
Legendary Iranian soccer player Ali Karimi, sometimes nicknamed the “Asian Maradona”, has meanwhile said he has received death threats from his family members after supporting the protests.
The government has described him as one of the “main leaders” of the demonstrations, and issued an arrest warrant for him in early October, accusing him of “harmonizing with the enemy” and “inciting unrest”, according to the Supreme Council of the Judiciary of Iran, charges punishable by death.
— CNN’s Sam Kiley and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.
