A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled on June 15 that FIFA can continue prohibiting fans from bringing the pre-revolutionary Iranian “Lion and Sun” flag into World Cup stadiums. The decision came just hours before Iran’s opening match against New Zealand at SoFi Stadium, effectively ending a last-ditch legal effort to overturn the policy.
The ruling preserved FIFA’s stadium code of conduct, which bars what the governing body considers provocative political symbols.
The lawsuit and the legal argument
The case, Kermanian v. FIFA, was filed on June 10 by the Institute for Voices of Liberty (iVOL) and plaintiff Sam Kermanian. They sought an emergency injunction to block FIFA from enforcing the ban at World Cup venues in California.
Their core argument was straightforward: banning the flag amounts to viewpoint discrimination, and California’s state constitution provides some of the strongest free speech protections in the country.
