Even if tens of millions of dollars were spent on campaigns exposing the practices undertaken by the Iranian regime and the repression suffered by its country's protesters, these would not have resulted as eye-opening as what occurred during the current World Cup in Qatar.
What the Iranian national team players did in the first match and in the press conference beforehand was widely reported internationally and resulted in the Iranian regime suffering a heavy moral loss regarding its self-image. It is no longer possible to resort to accusations and allegations of foreign conspiracy, Western plans to overthrow the regime, and so on.
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The world has witnessed the fury of soccer players playing abroad and Iranian fans living abroad. These individuals are not financially backed up by anyone and they have no chance at influencing events at home. They can only express their anger in the stands or by wearing T-shirts and throwing enraged slogans during matches.
This scenario was certainly unforeseen by the Iranian regime, otherwise, it would have prevented the soccer team from attending the tournament under any pretext whatsoever in the first place.
But what happened was completely unexpected, at least for Tehran, aware that the tournament is being held in the stadiums of Doha in neighboring Qatar where transgressions against the regime are hard to come by but most importantly not allowed. But there are some things that have seemed to escape the host country's control, such as the team manager's statements at the press conference.
One of the features of sports events, soccer in particular, is that they fascinate societies around the world no matter what social or professional class. Thus, any soccer-related event or even those occurring on the sidelines of the matches guarantees a large exposure among the public.
This is exactly what happened in the first match of the Iranian national team and in the statements preceding the match in the press conference. What happened was that Iran's players refrained from chanting their country's national anthem before their match against England in the World Cup.
This was simply meant to convey a message of anger and solidarity with the repression of protesters across Iran. The stands of Iranian matches have been turned into arenas, some for anti-regime and others for pro-regime demonstrations, also, banners have been raised in the stadiums demanding freedom and welfare for the Iranian people.
Some news reports have noted strong tensions between supporters and opponents of the Iranian regime. Certainly, such political-themed incidents represent a "crisis" for the host country and put it in a tight spot in terms of dealing with the demonstrators within the stands as well as controlling these actions.
The Iranian regime, as everyone knows, does not possess the ability to understand the sensitivity of the host country's situation, but is rather a regime of arrogant and obstinate nature due to its quite complex internal situation.
Before the match, Iran team captain and AEK Athens player Ehsan Hajsafi, became the first national team figure to speak publicly at the World Cup about his country's internal crisis, commenting cautiously "We are with them, we support them, we sympathize with them," in reference to the demonstrators protesting in Iran. Furthermore, Iran's national team coach, Portugal's Carlos Queiroz, said his players are free to protest. Iranian television live broadcast of the match cut off as players lined up before the national anthem was played and refrained from singing it.
This image, broadcast on the screens of every country in the world, conveyed the ongoing Iranian protests and demonstrations, of which many may have been unaware until now. This has worsened the Iranian internal situation, which has been one of the most significant challenges of the revolutionary regime since 1979.
These scenes in soccer stadiums during the World Cup have angered referees and noticeably the regime who may push things to greater repression in an attempt to contain the protests ongoing for two months now.
The fate of the Iranian team members themselves is also open to question, whether they will return to Tehran or continue playing abroad, given what everyone knows about the oppression that is inflicted on the regime's opponents. Some players may be targeted by Iran's mullahs due to their influence in stirring up internal rage and encouraging the protests.
There is no doubt that it was the Iranian regime that introduced sports into politics, neither the players nor the public.
According to media reports, the Kurdish players were arrested because they were critical of the regime as well as being accused of spreading counter-propaganda. What is described as a "major crisis" facing the Iranian regime after the killing of more than 300 people and the arrest of more than 14,000 in the past few months may be escalating, according to UN reports.
The dilemma is that Iranian regime officials insist on there being a "Western conspiracy" targeting their country and pushing it into civil war. If, for the sake of argument, we assume that this scenario is a genuine reality, an obvious question then arises: Who is fanning the flames of the protests?
There is no doubt that the Iranian regime's regaining control of the situation and the suppression of the protests – which have spread to some 155 Iranian cities – would not be a real victory.
The highly unstable situation in Iran will remain dormant, waiting for the next eruption, which requires a complete overhaul of internal and foreign policy and using the country's resources for more useful objectives – not spending them on militias, fabricating crises, and spreading chaos and unrest on a regional and international scale.
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