Mullah regime abuses families of football players

The mullah regime in Iran still relies on its security arm, represented by the Revolutionary Guards, to implement its domestic and foreign agenda, which is why Tehran exerted pressure on the Iranian national team players after they refused to sing the national anthem in the opening match against England in the World Cup tournament being held in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The Iranian security services revolted and made a set of preparations to prevent a recurrence of this in the Iranian national team’s match against Wales, and indeed it succeeded, as the players chanted the national anthem this time, although shyly, and they also achieved a victory over Wales with two goals and no response, but they were defeated by the American team 1-0. This greatly disturbed the mullah regime, which does not separate sport from politics, as it desperately wanted an Iranian victory over the United States, which it considers its sworn enemy.

Iranian pressure

CNN revealed that Tehran sent dozens of Revolutionary Guard officers to Doha to monitor the players of their national team and to collect the necessary information about anyone violating the regime’s instructions stressing that no player should give interviews to foreign media. The network indicated that informed sources told it that the mullah regime summoned the Portuguese coach of the Iranian national team, Carlos Queiroz, and informed him of the rejection of players supporting the Iranian protests that erupted at home during their time in Doha.

Not only that, but after the defeat of the national team against England and the talk of the local and international media that the reason for the defeat is due to the players’ support for the protests that their country has been witnessing since September due to the killing of the 20-year-old Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini by the Iranian morality police for violating the hijab dress code, the regime was prompted to exert pressure of another kind, as it targeted the families of the national team players inside the country and threatened them with imprisonment or torture in the event that the players did not behave well. Tehran even sent some of its supporters to Qatar to practice types of blackmail and confuse those supporting of the protests, especially those who raised the slogan “Woman, life, freedom”.

Despite this, the Iranian national team lost to its American counterpart, representing a blow to the mullah regime, which pushed its forces into the streets to arrest the protesters who celebrated the national team’s loss. Some of the mullahs’ media outlets even criticized the players of the national team and held them responsible for the loss, claiming that they “did not only lose the match, but they lost before the people and the opponent, as well as the government.”