Los Angeles has another name. Iranians call it Tehrangels, the largest concentration of Iranians outside of Iran. On Monday evening, a football match unlike any in World Cup history is held: involving a country engaged in a military conflict with the host nation the day before the game. Iran will face New Zealand on Monday While there is a peace agreement between Iran and the US A consensus was reached on Sunday.
Despite the agreement, the Iranian players will travel to the United States from their base in Tijuana, Mexico, the day before their game, play the match and return to Mexico the same night. These are the logistics of war in a competition designed for peace.
“I’ve been to three World Cups and they always say, once you get off the plane and enter the host country, there’s just a unique atmosphere of friendship and globality,” third World Cup-winning striker Mehdi Taremi said from Tijuana last week. “Unfortunately, I’m not feeling it right now. There’s a lot of tension. You can feel it in the atmosphere.”
Iran’s Mehdi Taremi (left) and head coach Amir Galehnoy attend a press conference ahead of their FIFA World Cup match against New Zealand. (AP Photo)
Three days earlier, at the same stadium, the Iranian flag was continuously booed by American spectators during the opening ceremony. At the eleventh hour, the players were granted visas. Treated unfairly on US soil, the team moved their camp from Arizona to Tijuana. Fifteen federation officials were denied entry, Iran’s ticket allocation was canceled and fans who had bought seats were canceled. Security operations around a single group-stage fixture already resembled something other than football.
Tensions have been simmering since December when Iran threatened to boycott the World Cup draw in Washington after denying visas to senior federation officials. They reversed course a few days later, sending coach Amir Galenoi with a skeleton delegation and insisting that attendance did not mean withdrawing their protest.
Outside the stadium last week, people waved pre-revolutionary Iranian flags, the lion-and-sun symbol of opposition to the Islamic Republic. FIFA banned them from venues, a move that was challenged in court on First Amendment grounds.
“For the majority of Iranians, the difference between Iran and the Islamic Republic is very important, and this flag represents that,” Nicole Sadighi of the Institute for Voices of Liberty was quoted as saying in media reports.
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“They are not supporting the regime. They are using this World Cup to express their displeasure with it.”
There is no clear answer to the question of who the diaspora is cheering for. In 2022, after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who sparked nationwide protests, the Iranians conceded their own team’s goal in a 6–2 defeat of England. A few days later when Iran was ousted by the US, people danced in the streets of Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Karaj.
Raha, a 28-year-old sociological researcher, traces the illusion of athletes’ behavior during the Women, Life, Freedom protests.
“People were fighting in the streets, and right before the World Cup, the players were laughing, joking, taking pictures of themselves looking happy. I will never forget those pictures,” she told The New Arab. She might still be watching. But defeat will not upset her and victory will not make her happy.
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Saman, a professional runner and coach, recently invited friends to watch the competition. Two rejected. “They said it would only create controversy. They believe that supporting the current national team is the same as supporting the government,” he told The New Arab. As a child, he says, all he needed were four stones for a goalpost and a neighbor’s color TV. What was once sacred is now contested.
President of the United States Donald TrumpAsked in March if he was worried that Iran had shown up for the World Cup, he was brief. “I don’t really care. I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They are walking on fumes.”
For Faramarz, who skipped afternoon classes and danced on Karim Khan Zand Street at the final whistle to watch Iran qualify for the World Cup in 1997, the gap between then and now is immeasurable in years. Nearly three decades later, he’s not sure he’ll see.
“It really breaks my heart,” he told The New Arab.
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Iranian fans remember the 1998 victory over the United States in France. Since then they have been waiting for the sequel.
In Tijuana, superfans Reza Mansour and Mostafa Pourmand, who between them have appeared in 11 World Cups, believe this is the best team Iran has ever sent. “There’s a really high chance we’re going to advance. The best chance we’ve got.”
If they do, it opens up a possibility that seemed fanciful six months ago: Iran against the United States, on American soil.
Tonight is not the sequel. This is something unfamiliar. It starts in Los Angeles at 6 p.m.