Iran’s first match in the World Cup in Qatar left an unusual image: the footballers of the Persian team refused to sing the country’s anthem before the match against England. Her gesture was a form of protest for the death of Masha Amini, the 22-year-old girl who was arrested for wearing her veil incorrectly and wearing pants that were too tight, and who died from blows to the head. The popular protests have already left at least 400 dead and more than 15,000 arrested.
It remained to be seen what happened four days later, in the match against Wales. On this occasion, the players did. Many of them with small mouths and without even moving their lips Sardar Azmoun, Bayer Leverkusen striker, one of the most active against the repression against the protests. As Pío García titled the chronicle of that meeting, “Iran loses a game but wins another.” Now the intrahistory of that change of course has been known. According to CNN reports, those selected by Carlos Queiroz were summoned to a meeting with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to warn them of what could happen to their families if they persisted in their attitude. Specifically, they would face situations of “violence and torture” if they did not sing the national anthem or if they joined a political protest against the Tehran regime. In addition, dozens of IRGC officials have been recruited to control athletes who cannot meet with foreigners.
What will happen tonight in the match against the United States, the great enemy of the regime, ‘the great Satan’? The pressure on the players is maximum. A protest in this context would be a huge setback for the ayatollahs. To avoid this, they have insisted on threats “if they do not behave properly.” The sources of the US chain also affirm that Carlos Queiroz, the Portuguese coach of the team, met with the IRGC officials after they transferred the threats to their footballers. The Portuguese, who criticized a BBC journalist for asking him questions of a political nature at a press conference, would have told his men that they can protest at the World Cup, but only within FIFA rules.
In this fight to clean up their image, the ayatollahs would also have sent hundreds of actors to create a false sense of support for the team in the match against Wales. This measure will also be applied in tonight’s game against the United States, when they plan to “significantly increase the number of actors present in the stadium.” A match that, if it were up to them, should not even be played. Just yesterday they called for the expulsion of the American team from the World Cup due to the decision of the North American Federation to eliminate the central symbol of the Iranian flag on its social networks, a kind of schematic tulip that pays tribute to those who died for the homeland.
