Explained: Why Iran wants US thrown out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup

The call comes as the US prepares to face Iran in a decisive World Cup match already freighted by the decades of enmity between the countries and the nationwide protests challenging Tehran’s theocratic government

There’s a new twist to the old adversarial relationship between Iran and the United States.

Tehran has now called for the United States to be thrown out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup ahead of their match on Tuesday.

It occurred as the US prepared to face Iran in a decisive World Cup match already freighted by the decades of enmity between the countries and the nationwide protests challenging Tehran’s theocratic government.

Let’s take a look at the controversy:

What happened?

As per CNN, the US Soccer Federation put out social media posts showing Iran’s national flag without the emblem of the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic emblem, designed in 1980, is four curves with a sword between them. It represents the Islamic saying: “There is no god but God.” It also resembles a tulip or lotus.

At the top and the bottom of the flag, there are 22 inscriptions of “God is Great” as well, which honours the date on the Persian calendar when the Islamic Revolution took hold.

The Twitter account of the US men’s team displayed a banner with the squad’s matches in the group stage, with the Iranian flag only bearing its green, white and red colours. The same was seen in a post on its Facebook and Instagram accounts laying out the point totals so far in its group.

By Sunday afternoon, the normal flag with the emblem had been restored in the Twitter banner and the Facebook and Instagram posts with the altered flag had been removed.

Iran’s government reacted by accusing America of removing the name of God from its national flag.

“In an unprofessional act, the Instagram page of the US football federation removed the Allah symbol from the Iranian flag,” state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.

“The Iran Football Federation sent an email to FIFA to demand it issue a serious warning to the US federation,” it added.

Why did this happen?

The USSF said in a statement Sunday morning it decided to forego the official flag on social media accounts to show “support for the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights.”

“We wanted to show our support for the women in Iran with our graphic for 24 hours,” the federation said.

“It was a one-time graphic to show solidarity with the women in Iran,” a communications official from the US football body said, adding that it remained unmodified on US Soccer’s website.

A US Soccer spokesman later told reporters that the offending post had been removed and replaced with one displaying the correct flag. But “we still support the women of Iran”, the spokesman added.

The brief absence of the emblem came as monthslong demonstrations challenged Iran’s government following the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the country’s morality police.

The flag has become a point of contention at the World Cup. Apparent pro-government supporters have waved it, shouting at those demonstrating over Amini’s death.

Others at matches have waved Iran’s lion and sun flag, an emblem of its former ruler, the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The protests have seen at least 450 people killed since they started, as well as over 18,000 arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, an advocacy group following the demonstrations.

Iran has not released casualty or arrest figures for months and alleges without providing evidence that the protests have been fomented by its enemies abroad, including the US.

Tehran also restricts media access and has detained over 63 reporters and photographers since the demonstrations began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, making covering the unrest that much more difficult.

More security forces could be seen at Iran’s last match against Wales. In the capital Tehran, anti-riot police — the same ones cracking down on protests — waved the Iranian flag after the Wales win, angering demonstrators.

Federation spokesman Neil Buethe would not say whether the original decision had been cleared by USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone, a former national team player. Buethe said Parlow Cone was not available to discuss the matter.

“This was a decision within the federation,” he said. “I’m not going to get into who knew and who didn’t.”

Asked whether there had been discussions with diplomatic entities, Buethe said: “There have been at certain times. I’m not going to talk about those, but, again, this is our decision not anyone else’s or pressure from anyone else.”

The USSF decision added yet-another political firestorm to the Middle East’s first World Cup, one organisers had hoped would be spared of off-the-field controversies.

Iran’s players declined to sing the national anthem in their first game against England in an apparent show of solidarity with protesters. They sang quietly on Friday before their 2-0 win over Wales, where boos and jeers were heard from Iran supporters.

Defender Walker Zimmerman said the US players were unaware of the posts.

“We didn’t know anything about the posts but we are supporters of women’s rights,” he said. “We’re focused a lot on Tuesday, on the sporting side, as well. … I think it’s such a focused group on the task but at the same time we empathize and we are firm believers in women’s rights and support them.”

The US state department told CNN it had nothing to do with the move from the USSF but would continue to “find ways to support the Iranian people in the face of state-sponsored violence against women and a brutal crackdown against peaceful protestors.”

How did Iran react?

Not well.

As comments raged online, Iranian state television described the US federation as “removing the symbol of Allah” from the Iranian flag.

Iran s Tasnim news agency said on Twitter that the US team had “breached the FIFA charter, for which a 10-game suspension is the appropriate penalty”.

The US team “should be kicked out” of the World Cup, it added.

Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Safiollah Fagahanpour, an adviser to the Iranian Football Federation, saying that the “measures taken regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran flag are against the law” of FIFA competitions.

“They must be held responsible,” Fagahanpour said. “Obviously they want to affect Iran’s performance against the US by doing this.”

The US and Iran cut diplomatic relations in 1980, several months after students took dozens of Americans hostage at the US embassy in Tehran.

Iranian leaders have accused the United States and other foreign adversaries of fomenting the protests in which Iranians from all walks of life have mounted one of the boldest challenges to the theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Washington has imposed sanctions on Iranian officials over the crackdown on protesters.

Iran s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that negotiating with the United States would not put an end to the “troubles” that have rocked the Islamic republic over the past two months.

When Iran and the United States played in the 1998 World Cup, the Iranian players handed their American counterparts white roses, a symbol of peace.

FIFA did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

With inputs from agencies

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