One of the most beloved players in Iranian football history has been raided on his family home by the authorities after speaking out against the government. At least two other famous players have been arrested and detained for lending support Protests have rocked Iran since the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, on September 16.
And six weeks before the World Cup in Qatar, the star striker of the Iranian national team has suggested that he and his teammates be subject to a gag order in effect, warning that even commenting about protests that could cost them their place on the team. Unable to speak publicly, the Iranian players prepared for their final game of the week in Austria with what appeared to be a silent protest, replacing their jerseys with jackets. black in the national anthem.
Now, a group that has long campaigned for women and girls to be allowed into stadiums to watch football in Iran has urged the game’s global governing body, FIFA, to intervene. In a letter to the football organization’s president on Thursday, the group called on FIFA to remove the Iranian team from the World Cup for “flagrant violations” of football’s rules regarding government interference.
“The Iranian Football Association is an important ambassador for the Islamic Republic and is acting in accordance with the repressive regime,” activist group Open Stadiums wrote in a letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino. “Therefore, it is not surprising that they banned the players from showing solidarity with the call for freedom of the citizens of Iran and the victims of the brutal crackdown by the authorities.
The letter asks FIFA to “immediately expel Iran from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.”
FIFA declined to comment on Thursday’s letter.
The request to disqualify Iran was made with more hope than expectation: FIFA is unlikely to disqualify the team from the tournament in which they have qualified, especially so close to the competition, nor has it shown any effort. what force to put pressure on Iran with anything more than a public statement. The majority of Iranian fans will also oppose the World Cup ban; many of them revere the national team, known as Team Melli, and see it as representative of the people rather than the government.
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But the football leadership could face significant pressure from the impact of protests sweep Iran after Amini’s death, a 22-year-old woman was arrested by the country’s ethics police; any attempt by the government to silence players of the national team; and the consequences for current and former players who have publicly supported the protests.
Infantino visited Tehran in 2018 to watch the final of the Asian Championships, a match where a small group of women were allowed into the city’s Azadi Stadium. In the months that followed, he claimed that FIFA made “several appeals” to the Iranian authorities to “resolve the unacceptable situation” of women not being allowed into the stadium.
“Our position is solid and clear,” Infantino said in 2019, after a fan self-immolation outside court where she faces being jailed for participating in a game. “Women must be allowed into football stadiums in Iran.” He restored that position as recently as last year, when he praise the work of the president of the Iranian federation after a meeting in Doha.
Open Stadiums on Thursday said it had concluded that “it’s all just words and empty promises.” In March, for example, women holding tickets to a game in the northeastern city of Mashhad denied entry when they tried to enter the stadium. Some have pepper spray attack by security officers.
“Nothing has changed,” the group wrote to Infantino. “The Iranian women are still locked in our beautiful match, and we are systematically repressed when trying to get into the stadium.” The group accused Infantino and FIFA of allowing “serious human rights violations” to occur with “protection and consent”.
Some of the country’s most famous players, including Ali Daei – the top scorer in international football history – have criticized the government both for Amini’s death and its suppression of the following protests. there. “Solve the problems of the Iranian people instead of using repression, violence and arrest”, Daei wrote on Instagram.
One of the most prominent football voices that can be said is Ali Karimi, a former Bayern Munich player and arguably the most successful Iranian player of all time. Karimi, now 43, has been using her social media feeds for days – including his Instagram account, has nearly 13 million followers – to criticize the government; to share footage of protests and violent police responses; and even advises his followers on how to bypass Iran’s internet access blocks.
Government officials and their allies have called for Karimi’s arrest, and it is reported that state television is following instructions not to mention him or his former teammate, Daei, by name.
On Monday night, Karimi’s home in the Tehran suburb of Lavasan was seized by the governmentwith a large concrete block placed at its entrance. Other properties also reported to have been “sealed.” In response, more than a million Iranians added their names to a petition that went viral on social media that read: “I stand with Ali Karimi.”
Karimi, now in the United Arab Emirates, responded on Instagram that “a house without land is worthless.”
His successors in the national team say they cannot be so outspoken. Sardar Azmoun, striker of German football team Bayer Leverkusen, suggested in an Instagram post that “national team rules” prevented players from expressing their views on the protest before insisting that he would be willing to “sacrifice” his place at the World Cup for “a the hair on an Iranian woman’s head.”
Several other players posted similar announcements. A few hours later, they were all deleted. Several players have “blacked out” their social media accounts, while Azmoun – known by the nickname Messi of Iran and considered by many to be his country’s best player – deleted them all. whole picture from his Instagram feed for a few days. When the image resurfaced on Wednesday, the account highlighted a carefully crafted support message for Iranian women.
Insecurity within the national team – which has spent the past two weeks in Austria in a pre-World Cup training camp – has become apparent ahead of Tuesday’s game against Senegal. At the request of Iranian authorities, no fans were allowed into the stadium, although a group of protesters had gathered outside. As Iran’s national anthem played, and protesters shouted through the air, the players remained unmoved, the flags of their jerseys hidden under thick black coats.
The country’s authorities have stressed that they will “take action against celebrities who fan the flames of riot,” INSA news agency reporteddue to the comments of the governor of Tehran, Mohsen Mansouri.
On Thursday, they tracked down the threat. State news agencies confirmed that Hossein Mahini, a defender who was a member of Iran’s national team at the 2014 World Cup and most recently played for Saipa, a second-tier team in Tehran, has been arrested for “supporting” and encourage riots on social networking sites. “
About 24 hours later, Azmoun was back on Instagram. In a new post that is both a subtle challenge to the national team’s gag order and a signal of his solidarity, he posted an image of Mahini underneath a heart big blue.
