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DOHA, Qatar – The eleven Iranian players refrained from singing their national anthem before their first match of the FIFA World Cup 2022 ™, started in a rout against England (2-6), Monday in Doha.
Their captain Ehsan Hajsafi had explained that the players would decide “collectively” whether or not to sing the anthem of the Islamic Republic as a sign of support for the victims of the harshly repressed demonstrations in their country.
Many of the demonstrators and opponents of the Islamic Republic regime expressed their annoyance at what they see as the lack of commitment from their footballers, and their anger when they were received before their departure for Qatar by the ultra-conservative president Ebrahim Raïssi.
During the anthem, the cameras briefly showed the face of a spectator in her fifties, a white veil over her head, her face bathed in tears.
The players, themselves, remained silent, their faces completely impassive. Physically diminished, the star of the team Sardar Azmoun, who had denounced the repression on social networks, came into play in the second half.
« Azadi! Azadi! »
The slogan symbol of the movement, “Women Life Freedom”, appeared before the kick-off on a banner in a bend of the stadium occupied by the Iranians, before disappearing. “Azadi!” Azadi! (“Freedom! Freedom!”) also sometimes rose from the stands.
Since the beginning of the uprising in Iran, caused by the death on September 16 of the young Mahsa Amini (22 years old), arrested by the morality police in Tehran for not having respected the strict dress code imposed by the regime, the refusal to singing the anthem of the Islamic Republic is one of the levers for Iranian sportsmen to show their solidarity with the movement.
The silence of the footballers during the anthem on Monday will not, however, be enough to convince those who consider their support too timid.
In front of a giant screen near the national library in Tehran, only about 200 people had gathered, including Farzad, a 21-year-old student who does not give his name: “I have always supported the national team, but not this time. Because the players didn’t support the people. I was not upset this time by the loss of the national team. »
On Sunday, Iranian justice announced that it had summoned Yahya Golmohammadi, former international and current coach of the Persepolis club, one of the most popular in the country with Esteghlal. He had strongly criticized on Instagram last week the players of the national team for not “bringing the voice of the oppressed people to the ears of the authorities”, after their meeting with Ebrahim Raïssi.
“Personal choice”
On September 27, the national football team had already refused to sing the anthem before a match in Austria against Senegal (1-1). Dressed in a black parka devoid of any coat of arms and hiding the Federation logo, the players remained silent, most of them with their heads down.
This symbolic gesture, sometimes coupled with the wearing of a black armband as a sign of mourning, has since been taken up by many other athletes, such as the beach-soccer team on November 6 in Dubai, forcing state television to interrupt the live broadcast.
At the end of the final, won against Brazil (2-1), the players remained silent when receiving the cup. The author of the decisive goal, Said Piramoun, had shown his solidarity with women in Iran by pretending to cut his hair with his fingers.
Monday, the players showed no joy on their two goals. But was it a political message or more surely simple spite in the face of a sporting rout, the worst in the history of Iranian football since its first World Cup in 1978 (4-1 against Peru). Striker Alireza Jahanbakhsh said on Wednesday that whether or not to celebrate a goal would be a “personal” choice.
Beyond the field, many athletes have written messages of support for the protesters on social networks.
One of the most active is former Bayern Munich player Ali Karimi, who lives abroad and whose house was confiscated. He has publicly declined the World Cup organizers’ invitation to visit Qatar, as has Iranian soccer legend Ali Daei.