After the loss to the United States by the Iranian national team in the World Cup in Qatar, not all fans in the country have been devastated, as Iran’s elimination from the sporting competition, especially against the U.S. team, fizzles out the government’s chances of camouflaging the social protests of the past few months.
The Iranian government had hoped that a victory over the United States in the World Cup would give it some internal breathing space and had therefore put a lot of pressure on the players before the game, as reported by a sports journalist in Tehran and picked up by the DPA agency.
Iran’s exit from the World Cup in a game long awaited for its political tensions has been seen as good news for the detractors of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who have shouted slogans in the streets of the Iranian capital mocking the high expectations placed on the team by the country’s government not only from a sporting point of view.
Meanwhile, immediately after the start of the match, many Iranians have taken to social networks to remember the names of those who have died in the government crackdown on the ongoing protests.
«Now the revolutionaries are rejoicing over the defeat of the Islamic Republic team,» Iranian activist Atena Daemi wrote on the social network Twitter.
Iranian footballers were under high pressure due to anti-government protests that have been taking place across the country for weeks, sparked in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code.
In fact, the Iranian government has reportedly threatened relatives of the national soccer team players with imprisonment and torture if the players «do not behave well», following the controversy over their refusal to sing the anthem in the opening match against England, according to sources quoted by the U.S. television network CNN.
The Iranian government also reportedly sent hundreds of actors to create a false sense of support among the fans, a fact it planned to increase significantly for the match against the United States.
However, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has confirmed that more than 300 people have died since the beginning of the protests in what is the first official balance since the beginning of the mobilizations. The figure is lower than that provided by NGOs, which point to more than 400 deaths due to repression by the security forces.
