It was the gesture of the World Cup. A demand that transcended borders, but whose addressee was Iran: both its people and the ruling class. The players of the Iranian national team decided not to sing the anthem of their country in an unprecedented criticism in the Islamic Republic. As if that were not enough, Carlos Queiroz's team conceded the biggest win in its history in the World Cups and captain Ehsan Hajsafi charged against his country for the murder of nearly 400 protesters who took to the streets for the death of Mahsa Amini.
The gesture of the footballers, brave and applauded by the whole world, has not had the desired effect in their own country. For a long time, the national team and therefore its footballers were accused of being excessively condescending towards the country's leaders, to the point that many fans consider the team as an element dominated by the Islamic Republic.
Without going any further, before the World Cup the team held a meeting with Ibrahim Raisi, President of the Republic. For all this, and despite the depth of the gesture and the subsequent words of Hajsafi, who said he wanted to be the voice of his compatriots in Iran who are suffering, not singing the anthem has not been enough for many people and Iranian opponents follow them criticizing and believe that they are not fully committed to what is happening in society.
Obviously the performance of the footballers has not pleased the government of Ebrahim Raisi. In the first place because they consider that they have been trapped by the enemy's trap, as published by the official newspaper of the Kayhan regime, for not singing the anthem, but also because of the worst performance in the history of the World Cups.
Iran is convulsed by the repression of protests against the Ayatollahs' regime, in which some 400 people have died, since the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died while being detained by the so-called morality police in Tehran, in September.
Since then, the pressure in the country has been unbearable, but also for the footballers, who have been highly criticized by the opposition abroad. Yesterday, for the first time, a footballer spoke out clearly against the regime of the ayatollahs. It was Captain Ehsan Hajsafi: “First of all, I want to express my condolences to all the affected families in Iran. They should know that we are with them, we support them and we sympathize with them. We have to accept that conditions in our country are not good. Our people are not happy. They have to know that we are with them and that we support them. We are supportive," he explained.
"We are here in Qatar, but that does not mean that we are not their voices or that we do not respect them. What we do is for them and we must fight. We must perform to the best of our ability, score goals and represent the people affected. Everything What we have we owe to our people and we are here to work hard, to fight, to perform well on the field, to score goals and to dedicate ourselves to the people of Iran.I hope that the situation will change as the people want and that the whole world be happy," Hajsafi added.
