Iranians Celebrate Soccer Team’s Loss to U.S. at World Cup

A video posted on social media and verified by Storyful, which is owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, showed people honking car horns and cheering in northeastern Iran.

The unusual reaction was in contrast to the last time the two countries played each other in the 1998 World Cup. Iran won that game and eliminated the U.S., setting off wild celebrations across the country. This time, however, Team Melli, as Iran’s soccer team is fondly called at home, has become a lightning rod for many Iranians who oppose the country’s rulers. 

Antigovernment demonstrations have engulfed the country since mid-September after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody. What began as protests demanding more rights have since broadened into calls to overthrow the Islamic Republic. 

Many Iranians have criticized the Iranian soccer team for not speaking out in support of the protests and for meeting President Ebrahim Raisi ahead of the tournament. Some Iranians said the team’s gesture to not sing the Islamic Republic’s national anthem before their opening World Cup match against England in an apparent show of solidarity with the rights movement was insufficient and late.

Iranians rooted for the opposition because they didn’t want the country’s rulers to use a win against the U.S. as propaganda. Iranian leaders in the past have used soccer celebrations to champion their own rule and stir resistance against foreign enemies. 

Tehran had already tried to co-opt the team’s efforts in Qatar to deflate the monthslong protest movement. After Iran beat Wales, crowds of pro-government supporters, including soldiers in uniform, gathered in the streets of Tehran waving the flags of the Islamic Republic. State media called Iran’s victory a “miracle of unity.”

More than 400 people have been killed during the protests, including some 60 children, according to rights organizations. The government has intensified its crackdown, particularly in the province of Kurdistan, which has experienced some of the most consistent antigovernment rallies. It is home to an ethnic minority and the area where Ms. Amini hailed from. 

After Iran’s defeat, cheering crowds took to the streets in Ms. Amini’s hometown of Saqqez and in Mahabad, another Kurdish city that has faced recent military action, according to footage posted on social media. 

At least 30 people were injured in Kurdish cities in the early hours of Wednesday as government forces shot at those who had come to the streets to celebrate, according to an Iranian-Kurdish human-rights organization, Hengaw.

Meanwhile, pro-regime media took a stand in favor of the Iranian team. The Fars news agency, which is close to the security services, published footage of Iranian soccer fans in Qatar cheering their team.

Write to Benoit Faucon at [email protected]