All soccer teams worry about what happens during a match, but Iran’s World Cup team is much more concerned about what happens afterward. Iran’s ruthless rulers reportedly threatened the Iranian players with severe punishment if they criticized the Islamist regime’s ongoing crackdown on political protests.
After Iran’s team lost Tuesday to the U.S. team, Iran’s athletes will return home, where they likely face punishment from a harsh regime from which they sought to distance themselves.
CNN reported that after Iranian players refused to sing Iran’s national anthem Nov. 21 in their opening World Cup match against England, the players were summoned to a meeting with officers of the Revolutionary Guard, the regime’s brutal paramilitary enforcers. The officers warned the players that their families would face “violence and torture” if they didn’t sing the Iranian national anthem or if they joined protests against Iran’s dictatorship, CNN reported.
Dozens of members of the Revolutionary Guard were deployed to Qatar, site of the World Cup tournament, where they monitored the Iranian athletes, who weren’t allowed to meet with foreigners unless supervised by regime loyalists.
Last Thursday, Iranian authorities arrested a former national team player, Voria Ghafouri, in what was widely seen as a warning to current members of Iran’s World Cup squad to keep their mouths shut.
Intimidated by the threats, Iran’s players mumbled through their national anthem at their Friday match against Wales, exhibiting the false enthusiasm of hostages in a proof-of-life video.
