Reports of a chilling threat made to the families of Iranian players over their refusal to sing the national anthem at this World Cup have been further legitimised in a ‘sad moment’ ahead of their group stage match against the USA.
Iran’s players sung, or at times murmured their national anthem as it rung out across Al Thumama Stadium on Wednesday morning (AEDT).
For many onlookers, it was seen as proof that horrific threats by the Iranian government had worked.
“Very, very sad moment,” Italian sports journalist Tancredi Palmeri wrote on Twitter.
“Finally at third game Iran players sung national anthem, and at the end they all bow down the head.
“So the rumours were true: their families were threatened of retaliation by Iranian government if they wouldn’t have sung.”
Iran has been facing persistent domestic protests for over two months, since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini reportedly died in police custody after being arrested for improperly wearing her hijab.
The Iranian national team has supported the protesters so far at this World Cup.
Before their opening game against England, the team stood silently for their home country’s national anthem, declining to sing along.
“Conditions in our country are not right, and our people are not happy,” Iranian team captain Ehsan Hajsafi told reporters after the game.
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Hajsafi further said that the victims’ families “should know that we are with them, we support them and we sympathise with them.”
In a terrifying development on Monday, CNN reported that families of the Iranian team had “been threatened with imprisonment and torture if the players fail to “behave” in the lead-up to Tuesday’s game against the United States.
The report added that the Iranian players had to meet with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps after their demonstration before the game against England.
On Tuesday, US head coach Gregg Berhalter and team captain Tyler Adams were grilled by Iranian journalists in a surreal press conference.
Questioned about domestic immigration policy and a US Navy ship in the Persian Gulf, Berhalter answered, “I don’t know enough about politics, I’m a soccer coach.”
Berhalter also addressed the social media controversy that erupted over the weekend, when US Soccer posted a version of the Iranian flag in which the Islamic Republic emblem was scrubbed.
The coach said he, his staff and his players “had no idea about what US Soccer put out.” The posts were later deleted.
“All we can do on our behalf is apologise on behalf of the players and the staff, but it’s not something that we are part of,” Berhalter said.
An Iranian reporter told Adams he mispronounced “Iran” and questioned the captain about “representing a country that has so much discrimination against black people.”
“My apologies on the mispronunciation of your country,” Adams said.
“That being said, there’s discrimination everywhere you go. One thing that I’ve learned, especially from living abroad in the past years and having to fit in in different cultures and kind of assimilating to different cultures, is that in the US we’re continuing to make progress every single day.”
The Wednesday morning game is a must-win encounter for USA, while Iran will advance with either a win or draw.
The USA went ahead after 38 minutes through a goal to star forward Christian Pulisic.
-With AFP and The NY Post
