The hearts of soccer fans, their infatuations and falling out of love, is as complicated as that of any man, woman or person who does not identify with any gender. If Russia or Belarus were at the World Cup in Qatar, surely hundreds of millions of fans around the world would have wanted them to lose. But if North Korea had qualified, it would have had a pro-army because of David vs. Goliath. China, in sporting terms, does not arouse great emotions either for or against, despite its deplorable record on human rights. All this, of course, from a Western perspective, it would be necessary to see if the fans of the countries victims of colonialism, wars and coups orchestrated by the CIA and acolytes want the United States, England, France, Belgium to win or not. ...
Among the teams competing in the first World Cup held in the Middle East, the three most "conflictive" for political reasons are the hosts, Saudi Arabia and Iran, for similar reasons, despite the enormous rivalry between the regimes in Riyadh ( Sunnis) and Tehran (Shiites), which also extends to soccer fields. Reasons: discrimination against women and homosexuals, brutal repression, lack of freedoms, executions, persecution of political dissidents, the imposition of the veil...
In the case of the Melli team (which means "national team" in Persian), the deep divisions in its complex multi-ethnic society, between supporters of modernity and tradition, of the theocratic regime of the ayatollahs and their detractors, have fully reached to the soccer team in the midst of the massive protests and demonstrations over the death last September of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, after being detained by the "morality police" for not wearing the veil. It is estimated that another 250 people have lost their lives in the crackdown.
With Iranian players and fans divided between those who want to take advantage of the World Cup as an instrument of denunciation and those who want to dedicate themselves only to playing football, and with the government intimidating and pressuring them not to engage in politics, it is difficult for the scenario not to affect in Qatar to the performance of the team coached by the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz. The delay in his appearance before the press to announce the squad list has already given rise to all kinds of suspicions (among the internationals who have contributed to qualifying for the final phase are members of Feyenoord, Belgian Charleroi, AEK Athens, Dinamo Zagreb, English Brentford and the Ponferradina goalkeeper).
Two of the stars, Sardar Azmoun (who plays for Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga) and Mehdi Taremi (Porto), have argued in public, after the former wrote on social media – before being forced to suppress political messages – that he would resign from the World Cup “to save a hair from any victim of repression”. In preparatory matches, the members of the Persian squad have covered the national emblem of the shirts with black jackets and some have not sung the anthem, and the Government of Tehran wants to make sure that these gestures of dissent or other similar ones are not repeated after the matches against the USA, England and Wales in the group stage (it would be a huge surprise if Iran went further). Former player Jalal Talebi, who lives in San Francisco, has refused to comment on television.
The Melli team was an instrument of unity and a source of joy for the Iranians. Now it is a mirror of its divisions.
