Iran puts pride in a World Cup dominated by fear of Qatar and FIFA

• Chronicle The young England is excited after the historic rebellion of the Iranian team against its government

• Group B Classification of the group stage

Perhaps these names do not tell you much.

Until yesterday they were a handful of Iranian players, many of them anonymous, trying to earn a living as footballers.

Some in Iran, the luckiest in Europe.

But

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

and

they appeared on the grass of the Khalifa stadium in Doha united and ready to star in a historic episode.

Fear could not.

They simply showed that in these times, and in a World Cup scenario where no one had to bow their heads, where no one dared to wear a simple multicolored bracelet that would upset the perverse alliance between Qatar and FIFA, pride can be imposed on anyone .

Even to a theocracy like that of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

There was nothing more to attend to the gesture of the Iranian players when their national anthem began to thunder.

All of them serious.

immobile.

Some fixed their eyes on the horizon, others could not prevent it from getting lost in the stands.

Because there, at one end of the stadium, the Iranian fans took advantage of the moment to shout.

To boo the anthem.

Among the women, almost all without a veil, there were those who lowered their thumbs.

Other fans sang the Persian anthem at the top of their lungs.

“All this we are doing for

.

We don't want this government," one of them told this journalist.

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He was referring to the death in police custody of a 22-year-old girl detained by the Iranian morality police in Tehran for not wearing a veil properly.

The protests led to a relentless repression that continues today.

The NGO Iran Human Rights recorded yesterday the death of 378 people, including 47 minors.

In the Iran team, at the moment of truth, there were no dissidents.

All the footballers, including those on the bench, strictly followed what was decided in the booth.

It would be their way of protesting against the Islamic regime of

, the supreme leader, and

, the President of the Republic.

On that bench waited

who played the last stretch.

The Bayer Leverkusen footballer, one of the great references of the team, came to be threatened with not being called up for showing his support for Iranian women.

"I can't keep quiet.

And if the punishment is being kicked out of the national team, that's a small price to pay for a single lock of an Iranian woman's hair.

They should be ashamed of how easily they can murder a person.

Long live Iranian women », he wrote before the World Cup.

Those who camped on the lawn could no longer abstract from everything that had happened.

They were swept by England (6-2).

It was only necessary to see how

, author of the two goals for the Iranians and who also came from writing messages on social networks against the repression of his government, reacted to his goals.

Not a slight smile.

Just a deep regret.

Once the game was over, the Iranian players stayed in the center of the field.

They remained embraced for a few minutes.

talking to each other

Perhaps giving courage to the consequences that a gesture of profound symbolic value could bring about.

A full-fledged challenge to an Islamic Republic exposed on the television set of Qatar, a country with which it maintains a strategic alliance in the area.

The position of the Iran coach, the Portuguese

, was not surprising .

Of course, there was no criticism of the government and the federation that pays it.

And he focused on the pressures received by his players.

"It is not right to come to this World Cup and ask the footballers to do things that are not their responsibility," said the coach.

The resounding gesture of the Iranian players contrasted with the ease with which the seven teams that intended to wear the multicolored

bracelet in favor of the LGTBIQ+ collective gave in to threats from FIFA, delivered from day one to the designs of the autocracy of Qatar, and with the regulation that prevents integrating unauthorized elements in the kit as an alibi.

The federations of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland surrendered before starting.

All of them signed a joint statement this Monday morning assuming that they did not want to expose their players to a disciplinary sanction (it happened because the captain who wore the tape was reprimanded with a yellow card).

The former British footballer and BBC reporter

did not hesitate to tie the rainbow bracelet in full broadcast.

The players of the

, on the other hand, did not raise their voices.

In their timid reply, they got on their knees before the start of the match against Iran in that gesture popularized in its day by the

movement .

And

, the English captain, wore the tape contrived by FIFA in desperation, with the motto "

».

"This decision is in line with article 13.8.1 of the FIFA Equipment Regulations, which stipulates that, in the final phases, the captain of each team will wear the bracelet provided by FIFA," the highest international body reported without shame. .

The Spanish Federation chaired by

, by the way, always made it clear that it would never wear a bracelet that could carry any type of sanction, and that it would wear the ribbon provided by FIFA.

This World Cup in which fear and the ball had to prevail over sanity, the Iranian team opposed silence.

The bravery.

And pride.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• FIFA

• Qatar

• Iran Soccer Team

• England Soccer Team