Wednesday at 2:30 a.m., Al Thumama Stadium
The Iranian football federation demanded the disqualification of their opponents two days before their important FIFA World Cup match against the United States.
The US Soccer Federation (USSF) altered an image of the Iranian flag and uploaded it to social media without including the nation’s official insignia. The US said the exclusion was intentional and was done to demonstrate support for the Iranian women, according to The New York Times, even though the two posts were later removed.
In his press conference prior to the game, Iran’s renowned no-nonsense coach Carlos Queiroz responded. The Guardian paraphrased him as adding, “We have indicated many times that we have sympathy of all humanitarian issues.” “However, we stand in solidarity with all causes, no matter where they are in the world. We stand in solidarity with everyone when it comes to issues like human rights, racism, and students shot and killed in schools. But our goal is to make people smile for 90 minutes.”
This came a day after Queiroz demanded that Jurgen Klinsmann resign from his position in FIFA’s technical study group after criticising the “culture” of Iran’s team. Klinsmann, a member of Germany’s World Cup-winning team in 1990 with an unbreakable connection to the US, coached their men’s team between 2011 and 2016.
Iran’s political instability has been a highly dramatic background story to this World Cup. In support of the protesters who have taken to the country’s streets in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the country’s morality police for not wearing the hijab, Iran’s football players, just like they had done in a pre-tournament friendly in September, did not sing the country’s national anthem during their opening match against England. Iran’s rowdy travelling crowd booed as the national anthem played.
They were defeated by England 6-2 and appeared visibly disturbed by the gravity of their step. With that very emotional significance in the forefront of their minds, they put up an incredibly tenacious performance to defeat Wales 2-0 in their subsequent encounter.
By achieving this, they earned themselves a chance to first advance to the World Cup knockout rounds. Unless Wales pulls off a highly unlikely upset against England, a draw versus USA may be sufficient for them to advance. But those in Iran will be eager for a victory considering that their opponents are the nation’s main geopolitical adversaries.
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1980, which put the Khomeini family in power in the Gulf state, the conflict between Iran and the US has been raging. Since then, there have been clashes, with the war recently re-igniting in 2020 after the US murdered a senior Iranian general and Tehran fired retaliatory missiles against US forces stationed in Iraq.