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Iran’s national soccer team ended its World Cup run on Nov. 29 with a loss in its final group match against the U.S. Iran had defeated Wales but losses to England and the U.S. meant a third-place finish in Group B.
Cause for sorrow among Iranians of all generations, demographics, and political affiliations? True until a few months ago.
I know this firsthand. I have lived with Iranian soccer all my life. I was a midfielder for Iran’s squad at the 1978 World Cup, the first time that Iran made it to the global stage and I was the only representative for Asia and Pacific in the elite 16.
But Iran of today is very different, even from a few months ago.
It was only the country’s theocratic rulers and their supporters who are despairing. But not so much for soccer, rather for losing a gambit to create a much-needed image of stability and normality faced with persistent and growing nationwide protests.
For ordinary Iranians, the loss was actually a source of jubilation. In some cities, young men and women danced in the streets, long into the night, while fireworks were set off to celebrate the mullahs’ being robbed of a potent tool for their propaganda. But now soccer can no longer serve as a distraction from Iran’s ongoing domestic unrest.
The latest reports indicate that that unrest has grown to encompass at least 277 cities and towns, and to include labor strikes within a variety of important industries including trucking, oil and gas, food production, and automobile manufacturing. Women are still leading the movement for regime change, while high school and college students remain highly engaged and thus make up a substantial portion of the tragic death toll.
Since the nationwide uprising broke out in mid-September, regime authorities have killed hundreds of participants either with gunfire or with savage beatings both in police custody and out in the streets. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, or the MEK, the country’s leading pro-democracy opposition group, has ascertained from its domestic network that upwards of 660 protesters have been killed so far, of which at least 60 were under the age of 18.
Approximately 30,000 people have been arrested in connection with the uprising, and earlier this month the Iranian judiciary began handing down death sentences based on vague, political charges like “enmity against God.”
This phenomenon is very alarming, especially in light of the fact that the same charge has been used for the past four decades to justify the mass execution of political prisoners, especially members of the MEK. They have executed scores of star players over the years to make sure that dissenting voices remained silent. Several of the victims were my close friends, including Habib Khabiri, national team captain, and one of the youngest members of the Iranian squad in the 1978 World Cup who was executed in July 1983, for being a supporter of the MEK.
With such threats looming over the heads of practically every man, woman, and child in Iran, it was understandably difficult for the public to maintain a positive focus on the World Cup. Many longtime soccer fans resolved to root against the national team before they played their first match, against England.
Soccer has always been dear to Iranians from all walks of life.
That is a lesson that the mullahs seemingly learned well in the wake of the revolution that ultimately brought them to power. During the era of the Shah, Iranians citizens were overwhelmingly appalled by the Shah’s corrupt and despotic rule, but they viewed Iran’s national soccer team as one of their true representatives on the world stage. I know this intimately.
The support that we received was always inspiring, but it was also reciprocal. We welcomed the chants of “Death to Shah” as much as we welcomed the cheers that greeted us upon our return from Argentina, just six months prior to the overthrow of the Shah.
Chants of “Death to Khamenei (the regime’s supreme leader)” and “Death to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the leader” can now be heard all across Iran today, but the mullahs are committed to keeping anti-government messages away from soccer and all other cultural institutions.
Of course, the past two months have proven unequivocally that Iranians as a whole will not be silent. Though my homeland has always been mad for soccer, it would sooner live without the sport than support a pastime which undermines or distracts from the emerging revolution. Once the people see that revolution through, they will have ample opportunity to chant for a national team that represents a free and democratic Iran.
In 2026, our national team might very well represent a democratic, secular, republic of Iran. My lifelong dream has never been so close at hand and I will be one of those who will cheer the national team or team Meli as it is called in Iran vociferously.
Hassan Nayebagha, a member of Iran’s National Soccer Team at the 1978 World Cup, is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
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