Football World Cup
Iran wants to prevent Pride game at World Cup at all costs
The LGBTQ+ community will be the focus of the World Cup duel between Iran and Egypt in Seattle. Unthinkable for Tehran as the game falls in an Islamic month of mourning.
Iran wants to prevent the Pride Match during the World Cup in the USA. “We have no interest in our third World Cup game being played under the banner of the rainbow colors. We absolutely want to prevent that and will do so,” said Iran’s association president Mehdi Taj, as the daily newspaper “Hammihan” reported.
He added that the June 26 game against Egypt in Seattle clashes with the Islamic month of mourning “Muharram” – Iran’s holy day of remembrance for the third Shiite imam Hussein. Under these circumstances, such an event at the same time as “Muharram” would be unthinkable for Iran, said the association president.
Homosexuality is a sin in Iran
In Islamic Iran, homosexuality is considered a sin and can be punished with severe penalties, including the death penalty. Tehran sees the plans of the World Cup organizers in Seattle to focus the games on the LGBTQ+ community as an insult to Islamic values and sacredness.
However, football experts in the country doubt that Iran will cancel the game because of the LGBTQ+ celebrations. The team competes in Group G against Egypt, Belgium and New Zealand and hopes – also because of the new regulations – to survive the preliminary round for the first time in their World Cup history.
Seattle wants to play Pride game
Egypt’s football association also protested against the Pride Match with a letter to the world football association FIFA. In Egypt there are criminal offenses “to protect morals or religion” under which homosexuality can also be punished, for example in laws on prostitution or general customs. The plans for the Pride Match were already made before the exact encounter on June 26, 2026 was decided. The World Cup organizers said they wanted to stick to it.
The democratic-liberal US city of Seattle celebrates the LGBTQ+ community on the last weekend of June 2026. The English abbreviation LGBTQI+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex people – and the plus sign and the asterisk are placeholders for other identities and genders.
dpa
