“Of course I don’t have the same wonderful experience.” With this phrase, the captain of his national football team and Olympiakos player, Mehdi Taremi, described a few days ago how he and the . The relationship between the Islamic Republic and the US does not seem to be changing the facts.
Difficulties
A few hours before the second match of the group stage, the press representative of the Iranian delegation confirmed that the team will file a complaint with FIFA regarding the travel restrictions imposed on its members during the football tournament. “Despite submitting its preparation program for the tournament well in advance, Iran’s national football team once again faced restrictions imposed by the organizers, which affected the implementation of the plans of its technical staff,” he told AFP.
This is a statement that comes after the US authorities refused to allow the mission to go to Los Angeles, USA, two days before the match of the second match of the seventh group, between Iran and Belgium (Sunday, 06/21), was held at the SoFi Stadium.
The logic on which the request was based is related to technical reasons and in particular to the need for the players to adapt to the local environment and to complete their training at the specific stadium. However, it is faced with the restrictive measures imposed by the US authorities, which oblige the mission to enter American territory just 24 hours before each match and leave the same day, immediately after it ends. And it is added to the equally controversial decision of the American authorities not to grant visas to fifteen members of the administrative staff and the president of the Iranian federation.
Hopes
It was hoped that the interim agreement reached by the two previously belligerent countries and signed by the two presidents, Donald Trump and Mesoud Pezheskian, would ease the tension that had started since the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran in late February. But the postponement of the Iranian delegation’s trip to Switzerland was followed by the cancellation of US Vice President Jay D. Vance’s attendance, creating gridlock and dampening the prospect of a football de-escalation.
On Friday afternoon, however, and in an emphatic reminder that the geopolitical framework dynamically shapes the whole situation, a cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel was announced, a front that is of particular interest to Tehran, since the allied arm of the Shiite, pro-Iranian organization Hezbollah bears the brunt of the confrontation with the Israeli armed forces (IDF). The development was welcomed by the entire international community as a necessary step for the observance of the US-Iranian agreement and peace in the second year.
Tehrangeles
However, things are equally strange when it comes to Iranian fans, inside and outside the country. On the one hand, hundreds of members of the US Iranian community, who entered the stadium holding Iran’s pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flag, a symbol of pro-monarchist resistance.
Especially in Los Angeles, home to the majority of Americans of Iranian origin (500,000-600,000 out of a total of one million) and in the neighborhood of Tehrangeles (neological contraction of the name of the city and the Iranian capital), an NBC report records the ambivalence of those who support the team of their country of origin, declaring their opposition to the regime through flags and slogans on “Free Iran” T-shirts.
And on the other hand, the difficulty of younger citizens of the Islamic Republic to separate the national from the political dimension, stating their reluctance to separate sports and politics. “I feel hatred for the national team. They are normalizing the idea that this system enjoys legitimacy in Iran,” said a university student in a New York Times report, while another Iranian advocated a more middle ground, wishing for the best but saying he would not attend the games.
