Iran’s anthem was jeered by some sections of the crowd at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles as the team’s unprecedentedly turbulent build-up to this World Cup finally concluded. Iran were not expected to even be at these finals when co-hosts the United States, alongside Israel, began a bombing campaign in February.
While a peace deal may have finally been agreed on Sunday, the build-up to the game only served to highlight the complexities and polarised views around the team’s participation.
The anthem was greeted by audible boos within the stadium, but minutes earlier, there had been loud cheers when images of the team in the tunnel appeared on the giant screens above the pitch, and the team also had strong vocal backing once the match kicked off.
The Iranian community in Los Angeles is primarily comprised of those who fled the country around the time of the 1979 Islamic revolution, or the children of those who did, and as such anti-regime sentiment is strong here.
FIFA won a case to ban flags with the pre-revolution ‘Lion and Sun’ emblem on from being brought to the stadium earlier on Monday, but plenty were in evidence within the venue in the lead-up to kick-off.
View 2 ImagesFans inside the ground defied FIFA’s rule about pre-revolutionary Iran flags(Image: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Protesters had promised “hell” in the build-up to the match and while some aggressive anti-regime slogans were chanted around SoFi Stadium, describing the leaders in Tehran as “terrorists”, many attending the match were keen to separate the team from the state they represent.
Keyan Jafari, who wore a cape and headband bearing the ‘Lion and Sun’, said before the match: “I support the Persian culture, our heritage and our history, and I’m not afraid to say that I don’t stand for the Islamic regime, and what they’ve done to the people in my country.
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“It’s unprecedented, we haven’t seen anything as brutal as that in a long time. We thought for a long time, should we even be here today? This is the Islamic (regime) team still, but we don’t know what they put those players through.
“I want them to know that I still stand for them as long as they are Iranian and they stand with us.”
Marian Rogers, who left Iran for Bedford as a teenager in 1977 before moving to the US, said: “Unfortunately there is some division among Iranians who feel this team is representing the government or supporting the government.
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“I don’t believe that. I believe that this is just soccer, and I like to leave politics out of it.”
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