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Iran called for the removal of the United States from the 2022 World Cup competition after the U.S. Soccer Federation’s (USSF) social media displayed an altered image of the Iranian flag in support of the ongoing protests that spread rapidly throughout Iran after law enforcement killed a young woman. 

Key Players

Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died in police custody after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for wearing an “improper” hijab.

Safia Allah Faghanpour is legal adviser to the Iranian Football Federation, the governing body of soccer in Iran.

Gregg Berhalter is head coach for the U.S. Men’s National Team.

Walker Zimmerman, a professional soccer player, plays defense for the U.S. Men’s National Team.

Further Details

On Sept. 13, 2022, Amini was visiting Tehran, the capital city of Iran, when she was stopped by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s hijab law, which requires women to cover their hair in public with a hijab or headscarf. After her arrest, the United Nations reported that Amini was detained and “severely beaten by members of the morality police,” and then transferred to a hospital after falling into a coma, where she died on Sept. 16. 

Iranian authorities claimed Amini had died of a heart attack and released footage of her collapsing in the police station, BBC reported. But Amini’s family and other witnesses disputed this claim, saying she was perfectly healthy before her arrest, The New York Times reported. Her brother said he had heard screams coming from inside the detention center on the day of her arrest and that a witness leaving the center that day said security forces had killed a young woman.

News of Amini’s death quickly spread across social media, including a photo and video of Amini unconscious in a hospital bed, bleeding, bruised, and with tubes in her mouth and nose, calling the government’s story into question. Soon after, Iranians took to the streets to demonstrate outside of the hospital where she died, The Times reported. Protests quickly spread throughout the country, leading security forces to fuel unrest further with live fire and more arrests. Women throughout Iran took off or burned their hijabs or publicly cut their hair to protest the regime’s oppressive treatment of women.

The protests were a topic of contention at the World Cup, which began on Nov. 20 in Qatar, with the entire Iranian team refusing to sing the country’s national anthem before a match the next day.

On Nov. 26, ahead of the U.S. match against Iran, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) posted a graphic of the World Cup standings on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The graphic depicted the Iranian flag’s colors of red, green, and white but removed the symbol representing the Islamic Republic, The Washington Post reported. The symbol, a stylized image of the word “Allah,” or “God,” was added to the flag and adopted as a national emblem after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, 

In support of the protests, some spectators at Iran’s first two matches wore pre-revolutionary flags or covered the national emblem with black tape on their clothing.

On Nov. 27, USSF updated the graphic to depict the official flag. The USSF said it had “wanted to show our support for the women in Iran with our graphic for 24 hours,” The Associated Press reported. 

“Clearly the decision we made was to show support for the women in Iran. That stands,” a USSF spokesperson told The Athletic, doubling down that the move was “our decision, not anyone else’s or pressure from anyone else.” 

Outcome

U.S. coaches and players respond

While the graphic was posted on the U.S. men’s team’s accounts, neither the players nor coaches played a role or had any knowledge of it. “We didn’t know anything about the posts, but we are supporters of women’s rights,” Zimmerman said during a Nov. 27 news conference. 

“The players and the staff knew nothing about what was being posted,” Berhalter said the next day, apologizing for the display. “Sometimes things are out of our control. We believe that it’s going to be a match that the result will depend on who puts more effort in, who executes better on the field. And we’re not focused on those outside things. All we can do ,,, is apologize on behalf of the players and the staff, but it’s not something that we are part of.”

Iranian authorities call for FIFA to give U.S. the boot

Tasnim News Agency, Iran’s state-aligned media organization, called on FIFA, the World Cup’s governing body, to kick the U.S. team out of the competition.

“By posting a distorted image of the flag of the Islamic Republic of #Iran on its official account, the #US football team breached the @FIFAcom charter, for which a 10-game suspension is the appropriate penalty,” Tasnim tweeted. “Team #USA should be kicked out of the #WorldCup2022.”

“According to section 13 of #FIFA rules, any person who offends the dignity or integrity of a country, a person or group of people … shall be sanctioned with a suspension lasting at least ten matches or a specific period, or any other appropriate disciplinary measure,” Tasnim added.

Faghanpour also called on FIFA to take action. “Respecting a nation’s flag is an accepted international practice that all other nations must emulate,” he told Tasnim. “The action conducted in relation to the Iranian flag is unethical and against international law.”

“Obviously, they want to affect Iran’s performance against the U.S. by doing this,” Faghanpour added, according to ESPN.

On Nov. 29, the U.S. team beat Iran 1-0, knocking Iran out of the tournament. The U.S. team went on to lose, 3-1, to the Netherlands in the round of 16.  Argentina subsequently won the 2022 World Cup, defeating France.