Shortly before Iran‘s opening match at the 2022 World Cup, Mehran Hashemi decided he could no longer stomach rooting for his country’s national team.
Players who Hashemi once idolized had since alienated him with their reluctance to use their platform to speak out against the tyranny of Iran’s Islamic regime.
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Protests erupted across Iran four years ago after Mahsa Amini was arrested and brutally beaten in Tehran for allegedly violating laws requiring women to wear a headscarf. A movement that started because of the death of a 22-year-old woman evolved into a broader push for equal rights, freedom of speech, relief from economic hardship and the dismantling of the existing authoritarian, repressive political system.
While members of the Iranian national team wore jackets covering their nation’s emblem before a September 2022 match against Senegal and refused to sing the national anthem before their World Cup opener against England, Hashemi expected more. The Tehran-based author and poet argues Iran’s best-known soccer players “turned their backs on the Iranian people” by not more strongly backing the protesters, by failing to condemn the government’s violent crackdown, and by allowing the team to become a propaganda tool.
Hashemi’s frustration had not subsided by the time he and his family gathered to watch Iran’s World Cup match against England in November 2022. The Hashemi family derisively cheered every time Iran surrendered a goal in a 6-2 defeat — and they were far from alone.
“What surprised me was that it was not just inside our house,” Hashemi told Yahoo Sports. “When Iran conceded goals, I could hear cheering from outside. After the loss to England, many people took to the streets celebrating, dancing and honking car horns, almost as if Iran had won the match rather than lost it. That alone shows how unusual and emotionally complicated the situation had become.”
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As Iran prepares to make its return to the World Cup next Monday, many Iranians across the world are experiencing the same conflicting emotions that Hashemi did four years ago. They’re torn whether to celebrate their pride in their Iranian heritage by supporting the national team or whether to show their contempt for the existing political system by rooting for Iran to lose.
Emotions are especially fraught in Los Angeles, where Iran will play two group stage matches, Monday’s opener against New Zealand and a June 21 clash against Belgium. The Los Angeles area is the heartbeat of the Iranian diaspora, home to more people of Persian ancestry than anywhere else in the world besides Iran. So many Iranians fled their home country after the 1979 revolution and settled in Westwood, Beverly Hills and surrounding West LA communities that the area is now affectionately known as “Tehrangeles.”
Stroll down Westwood Boulevard, just south of UCLA, and you’ll stumble across an assortment of Persian restaurants, bakeries, markets and specialty shops. For some Iranian Americans in that community, Iran’s World Cup opener on Monday is just an excuse to gather with friends and watch soccer. For others, it’s something more.
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“The Iranian diaspora wants to support Iran as a symbol of their home and the land that they lost, but they have to make a distinction,” said Nicole Sadighi of the Institute for Voices of Liberty, a Beverly Hills-based non-profit dedicated to supporting the freedom-seeking citizens of Iran. “They are not supporting the regime or anyone who stands with the regime. They’re using this World Cup as a platform to be able to express their resentment toward the regime.”
People wave U.S. and pre-revolutionary Iranian flags as they protest the Iranian regime outside of SoFi Stadium ahead of the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Iran opens its Group G campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15.
(SARAH LAI via Getty Images)
Geopolitics vs. the World Cup
As recently as a few months ago, Iran’s participation in the World Cup seemed tenuous at best. Surprise airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader and destroyed government and military sites, sparking a war that instantly threw into question Iran’s participation in a global soccer tournament on American soil.
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On March 11, Iran’s sports and youth minister declared that “definitely it’s not possible” for his country to take part in the World Cup, citing security concerns. The following day, U.S. President Donald Trump posted to social media that Iran was “welcome” to compete at the World Cup but cautioned, “I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.”
For months, the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona, prepared as though it would be Iran’s training base. Facility director Sarah Hanna said she was in contact with FIFA officials “multiple times a day” about anything from security protocols, to playing surface management, to what services the Iranian team would require during its stay. Hanna even invited a Middle Eastern studies professor from the University of Arizona to conduct a cultural training session with staff who would be working directly with the Iranian team.
“We always want to provide a welcoming environment,” Hanna said.
On May 25, via a video call with FIFA officials, Hanna learned that Iran’s plans had changed. While FIFA rejected Iran’s request to have its three group stage matches moved from the U.S. to Mexico, the parties reached a logistical compromise to allow Iran to spend as little time as possible in America. FIFA granted Iran permission to move its training camp from Tucson to Tijuana, a Mexican city adjacent to the California border.
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“I’m not going to lie and say we weren’t disappointed,” Hanna said. “It’s not the outcome that we wanted, but we’re extremely proud that we were selected as a facility and we know that we were fully ready.”
The thornier issue for all parties to negotiate has been the visa situation. All 26 Iranian players have received entry into the U.S., but, according to a New York Times report last Friday, more than a dozen support staffers and Iranian soccer officials planning to accompany the team were rejected.
After U.S. ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack went on social media last Friday to praise his team for its work processing visas for the Iranian soccer team, the Iranian embassy in Turkey delivered a fiery response.
“You cannot whitewash conduct that violates FIFA regulations and breaches the United States’ host obligations merely by praising yourselves,” the Iranian embassy wrote in a quote tweet.
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“Why do you not say that visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others who are an integral part of any national football team? You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level.”
The post from the Iranian embassy went on to accuse the U.S. of “depriving Iran’s national team of its right to play in the World Cup under normal conditions.”
“FIFA must hold the U.S. accountable,” it concluded.
Among the visa applicants denied entry into the U.S, according to the New York Times, is Mehdi Taj, the president of Iran’s soccer federation. Taj is a former commander in the Islamic Republic Guards Corps, an elite branch of the Iranian military officially classified as a terrorist group by the U.S. and other governments.
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When asked last week how the U.S. intended to assess visa applications from Iranian players, staffers and supporters, a state department spokesperson told Yahoo Sports that individuals would be judged “on a case-by-case basis after rigorous review and thorough vetting.”
“What we’re not going to allow,” U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio said last Wednesday, “is for them to embed in their delegation a bunch of people that we know have nothing to do with athletics and have ties to the IRGC or things of that nature.”
When Iran’s final roster for the 2026 World Cup was released, some questioned why Sardar Azmoun, who has scored 57 goals for the national team, was not among the 26 to make the squad.
(- via Getty Images)
When Iran released its World Cup roster on June 1, there was one eyebrow-raising omission that made headlines across the world.
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Sardar Azmoun, a 31-year-old striker once dubbed “Iranian Messi” in the British press, was not among the 26 players to make the squad.
Why would Iran leave home a player who has scored 57 goals in 91 appearances for its national team? Who has played for clubs like Bayer Leverkusen and Roma? Who is regarded as one of the best Middle Eastern players of his generation? An injury-plagued 2025-26 club season gives Iranian authorities an excuse, as does Azmoun’s lack of sharpness since making his return. And yet it’s still hard to fathom that politics didn’t also play a role.
Azmoun was one of the only Iranian players who spoke out in 2022 when the death of Amini sparked countrywide protests.
“At worst I’ll be dismissed from the national team,” he bravely wrote on Instagram. “No problem. I’d sacrifice that for one hair on the heads of Iranian women. This story will not be deleted. They can do whatever they want. Shame on you for killing so easily; long live Iranian women.”
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In January, as protests once again erupted across Iran, Azmoun said, “As an athlete, I always stand by the people of the country.” Then in March, one month into the war, the striker posted a photo of himself shaking hands with the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, an ally of the United States and Israel.
On Telegram, the IRGC labeled Azmoun’s visit as “cooperation with Iran’s enemies. Iranian state TV pundit Mohammad Misaghi called the striker’s actions an act of disloyalty and said, “National team players should be people who proudly belt out the national anthem and deserve to wear the Iran jersey.” Azmoun later removed the photo, but he has not been called up to the Iranian national team since then.
Stories like that one illustrate why anti-regime Iranian athletes often find themselves in a tricky position. If they use their platform to criticize the government, they risk their livelihoods, their spot on the national team — or even their lives.
For some Iranian soccer fans, it doesn’t matter if top players stay silent or if the regime seeks to use the national team’s participation in the World Cup as a means of seeking global legitimacy. These soccer diehards are comfortable rooting for the team and separating sport from politics.
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“The way I look at the national team is not at all the way some Iranians look at it, where they see the political issue as stronger,” said Hooman, a 57-year-old resident of Tehran who chose not to provide his last name to Yahoo Sports. “For me, the sporting side of the issue matters more.”
Other Iranians have a harder time supporting players who have stayed loyal to the regime or who aren’t comfortable sticking their necks out to criticize it. To them, a player choosing not to stand with his own people is unforgivable.
“This is why many Iranians continue to feel disconnected with the team and do not see it as representative of the nation,” Hashemi said.
At previous international sporting events, Iranian Americans who wanted to show their pride for their heritage without supporting the Islamic regime sometimes displayed Iran’s pre-revolution “Lion and Sun” flag. In 1980, the Islamic regime banned flags bearing the Lion and Sun emblem following the Islamic Revolution, replacing it with a red tulip-like arrangement of the Arabic word “Allah” and the phrase “There is no god but Allah.”
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FIFA reportedly has prohibited the display of the pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flag inside World Cup venues, presumably because it’s too “political” in nature. In response, The Institute for Voices of Liberty has sent a letter expressing concerns to FIFA and threatening legal action.
“For the majority of Iranians, the distinction between Iran and the Islamic Republic is very important and that’s what this flag represents,” Sadighi said. “Most Iranians love their home country, their culture and their people. What many object to is the regime that has ruled since 1979. Therefore being censored in displaying their heritage flag — the flag that they recognize — feels like a betrayal to them from FIFA.”
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Will Iranians and Iranian Americans fly the Lion and Sun flag inside and outside SoFi Stadium when the Iranian national team faces New Zealand on Monday? Will fans of Iranian descent cheer for Iran or against it? How will American fans react to an Iranian team playing on U.S. soil while the two countries are struggling to negotiate a ceasefire?
Those are some of the key questions heading into the rare World Cup match that could be more compelling away from the pitch than on it.
