A World Cup group stage match is supposed to be about football. Iran vs. New Zealand on June 15 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles was about everything but.
The Group G fixture ended 2-2, a result that will show up in FIFA’s records as a perfectly unremarkable draw. What won’t show up in the box score: the protests from Iranian fans in the stands, the banned pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flags waved openly in a Los Angeles stadium, and the booing that drowned out Iran’s national anthem.
A stadium divided against itself
Iranian fans in the crowd were visibly split. Some came to support the national team as a point of cultural pride. Others came to protest the Tehran government, using the global spotlight of the World Cup as a megaphone for dissent. The Lion and Sun flag, a pre-revolutionary symbol banned by the Islamic Republic, appeared throughout the stands as a pointed rejection of the current regime.
The national anthem was met with boos, a repeat of scenes from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar when Iranian players themselves refused to sing it in solidarity with the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
