Iran’s World Cup campaign opened in Los Angeles on Monday amid goals, controversy and a vocal protest outside SoFi Stadium, where demonstrators criticized the national team as an extension of Iran’s hardline government.
Hundreds of protesters greeted fans arriving for Iran’s 2-2 draw with New Zealand, many waving the pre-revolutionary flag rejected by the Islamic Republic’s leaders.
“This team is not the Iranian people’s team, it’s the regime’s team,” said Ava Amin, a philosophy student who attended with a banner calling for “regime change.”
“When the people get murdered, they ignore it and stay silent,” she told AFP.
In theory, Los Angeles’ large Iranian community, often nicknamed “Tehrangeles,” could have made Team Melli feel close to home. Instead, a significant part of the diaspora in California used the match to draw attention to what they describe as decades of repression under the country’s clerical leadership.
“It’s the mullahs’ team, so we can’t support them,” said Gilbert Gastin, an Iranian-American who has lived in exile for 20 years.
Gastin, a 44-year-old construction worker, said he came to protest the violent crackdown on demonstrations in Iran in January, which numerous NGOs say left thousands dead.
“This regime has killed so many people over 47 years, we are here to remind everyone that Iran needs democracy,” said Gastin, wearing a T-shirt bearing the pre-revolutionary flag: horizontal green, white and red stripes with a lion and sun emblem.
Tehran regards the flag as unacceptable and had warned that it could seek to stop the match if such symbols appeared inside the stadium.
Despite FIFA rules banning political displays, many supporters entered the venue openly wearing protest T-shirts and carrying the flag, according to several AFP journalists.
Stewards asked some fans to put away banners or risk being removed, but hundreds of symbols remained visible inside the 70,000-seat stadium throughout the match.
When Iran’s national anthem was played, boos mixed with cheers, echoing scenes from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where the tournament took place months after the deadly suppression of protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by morality police over her headscarf.
For some fans, the atmosphere was painful. Farideh Mansoor, a business owner from San Diego, said the players had done everything to reach the tournament.
“That’s why we have to support them. It is sport! It is not something political,” said Mansoor, an Iranian-American who moved to the United States 35 years ago.
The dispute over the squad has unfolded against a backdrop of broader tensions surrounding the tournament, jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
At the end of February, US and Israeli forces attacked Iran, which responded by striking American allies in the Gulf and closing the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting oil supplies and shaking the global economy.
On Sunday, Washington and Tehran announced an outline agreement to end the war.
Iran’s World Cup preparations had already been affected by the conflict. An initial plan to hold the team’s training camp in Arizona was abandoned in favor of Tijuana, just across the Mexican border, and more than a dozen officials and support staff were denied US visas.
“It’s not easy for them,” said Hamid Parvizi, who attended the match to protest against the team.
“I’d like to support them, but when you’re talking about Iran, it’s impossible to separate sports and politics,” said the 34-year-old accountant, noting that the squad arrived in Tijuana wearing pins honoring those killed in a strike on an Iranian school during the war.
Parvizi, a FC Barcelona supporter, remains convinced that political considerations influence Iran’s national team selections.
He pointed particularly to the absence of Sardar Azmoun, Iran’s third-highest scorer of all time, whom he believes was left out after making a social media post that angered Tehran.
“With things like that happening, I can’t trust that team,” he said.
