Team Melli should be banned

[Ari]

I see constant debates attacking the players, with everyone expecting them to abandon the national team, while those same critics live comfortably in Canada or the United States and have never done anything to help change the regime. Look at the example of Syria. The national team was often the only reason people had a moment to escape their problems and find some joy. Players like Omar Khribin gave their best during the civil war and and now after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. He was always applauded and supported whenever he and the main Syrian players stepped onto the field.
I use Syria as an example because it is a completely divided country, with parts of its territory controlled by Kurds, terrorist groups, U.S. military forces, Turkish interests, radical movements, and severe religious persecution against Alawites and some Christians. And yet, when it came to football, there was never this kind of debate or pressure placed on the national team player...

What about Masoud Shoajei? He was the one who called for FIFA to investigate the things. He is not sitting in Canada and living the life.

[persian8iran]

Syria:

• The "Free Syria" National Team: In 2013, defected players and coaches in Turkey and Lebanon formed an alternative national team. Coached by Marwan Mona (who fled after his club's stadium in Latakia was bombed), this team sought official recognition from FIFA to replace the "Assad team," playing in green jerseys (the color of the revolution) instead of the official red.
• The "Empty Stadium" Context
  The boycott extended beyond players to the facilities themselves. Many Syrian footballers refused to participate in the domestic league because stadiums—such as the Abbasid Stadium in Damascus—were being used by the military as bases for tanks and as temporary detention centers for protesters.

• Firas al-Khatib: Widely considered Syria’s greatest footballer, he boycotted the national team for five years (2012–2017). He famously stated he would not play as long as government forces were shelling his hometown of Homs.

• Omar Al-Somah: The star striker initially refused call-ups and was overlooked by the federation after he publicly displayed a "Revolutionary" flag during a match in Kuwait. Like al-Khatib, he eventually returned in 2017, a move that sparked intense debate among fans who felt he had "sold out" the revolution

• Abdul Baset al-Sarout: Once a goalkeeper for the Syrian youth national team and the club Al-Karama, he didn't just boycott; he became a leading figure of the uprising. Known as the "Singer of the Revolution," he transitioned from a footballer to a rebel commander and was killed in combat in 2019.
• Louay Chanko: A Swedish-Syrian international who opted out of the national team citing systemic corruption. He revealed in interviews that many players who stayed with the squad did so only out of fear, claiming the Syrian Football Federation (SFF) was a "political face" for the government rather than a sports body.
• Mosab Balhous: The legendary national team goalkeeper was arrested in 2011 for allegedly sheltering rebels. After a year in prison, he "re-joined" the team. Many analysts point to Balhous as an example of a "forced return," where athletes were pressured to represent the state to project an image of normalcy.

Every main Syrian player returned to the Syria national football team when they had a real chance to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2018. You can clearly see the boycotts by players like Khribin and Somah were mainly about their club careers, where they earn more than a million per season in Arab clubs. Because of that, they try to avoid long trips or the risk of injuries against teams like Myanmar or Bangladesh, where poor pitch conditions can potentially cause injuries.

But when the Asian Cup come around, or when there is a real opportunity to reach the final stage of WC qualification, they all return to the national team.

[persian8iran]

What about Masoud Shoajei? He was the one who called for FIFA to investigate the things. He is not sitting in Canada and living the life.

Masoud Shojaei was always an extraordinary yet inconsistent player, and a memorable figure for all of us because he played during one of the darkest periods of modern Iranian football (without almost a single iranian player in respectable leagues), the decline of Ali Karimi, Mehdi Mahdavikia, and Karim Bagheri and later became part of the transition into a new era under Carlos Queiroz, which eventually led to the best Iranian national team in history in 2018. He was an important legionnaire, and as captain he always honored the armband, despite a career marked by injuries but a lot of enjoyable skills. He represented the national team for a long period, arguably even longer than he should have, such as when he started against Morocco in 2018 despite clearly lacking match fitness or being shape.

It is also important to remember that he was an international player during the 2009 protests, as well as during the more recent ones. In other words, now that he has ended his career, he wants to encourage or pressure young players to abandon their childhood dreams of representing their country — their people, families, and friends. I do not think that is fair.

I understand that defending this regime is cowardly, knowing what it has done over the years and how it has destroyed countless dreams of young Iranians who had the potential to become artists, athletes, actors, engineers, painters, and so much more. But wanting to represent Iran at the national team level is a legitimate desire.

As I mentioned before, even Syria a country that is completely destroyed and deeply divided still sees its people turn on the television during matches, and passing a positive energy to their players, and take pride in their few recent achievements, such as reaching the knockout stage of the AFC Asian Cup'23 in 2024 under Bashar al-Assad’s rule, or more recently competing in the Arab Cup after the fall of the regime.

[koorosh]

Every main Syrian player returned to the Syria national football team when they had a real chance to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2018. You can clearly see the boycotts by players like Khribin and Somah were mainly about their club careers, where they earn more than a million per season in Arab

You brought Syria as an example and said "And yet, when it came to football, THERE WAS NEVER this kind of debate or pressure placed on the national team player..."

In your arguments, you provided absolutely no evidence of anything you surmised. I brought multiple examples showing that playing for NT was problematic. Again, without any evidence you conjecture that the boycott was in the self interest of the players The players have said that they were forced to play for NT....you say those who spoke out were just taking breaks to save their club careers.

Did you really do any research to back up your statements about Syria? Because I did. Syrian football players tried to get FiFA to ban their NT.

https://www.syriawise.com/assads-sport-squad-a-whitewashing-scheme/

How the Syrian government brought soccer into campaign of oppression https://share.google/4jso9ETQPjogWNcEE


The Playbook: How Syria’s brutal Assad regime used football to maintain power - Human Rights Foundation https://share.google/XQeM87fr63YYF9OTO

The idea that when it came to football, suddenly the whole country was united and there was no debate about participating in a murderer's team is ludicrous. Syrian football players tried to get FiFA to ban their NT.

[Ardalan]

Man yek chizi mikhaam beporsam: shoma chejoori mitonid be footbaal fekr mikonid, vaghti keshvar dar ashoobe kaamele?

In yek enteghaad nist, faghat konjkavam zehniyate barkhi az dostaan raa befahmam va shayad ham dark konam.

[Nokhodi]

Man yek chizi mikhaam beporsam: shoma chejoori mitonid be footbaal fekr mikonid, vaghti keshvar dar ashoobe kaamele?

In yek enteghaad nist, faghat konjkavam zehniyate barkhi az dostaan raa befahmam va shayad ham dark konam.

Baraye man shakhsan yek alaghe hast.
Mesle varzesh, ya ketab khoondan, ya naghashi...
Ideologic nist.
Baraye man hamishe rahat boode ke in joor masael ra az ham joda negah daram.

Faghat vakonesham fargh mikone. Too in sharayet nemiram amdan too ghame mellat shadi konam.
Dark mikonam mardom ra ke alaghei be football nadaran alan. Jenayati ke too Iran anjam shode ra enkar o tojih nemikonam.

Bebakhshid agar natoonestam behtar az in hessam ra bayan konam. Ghasde bi-ehterami nadaram.

[Super Shojaei]

Man yek chizi mikhaam beporsam: shoma chejoori mitonid be footbaal fekr mikonid, vaghti keshvar dar ashoobe kaamele?

In yek enteghaad nist, faghat konjkavam zehniyate barkhi az dostaan raa befahmam va shayad ham dark konam.

Iran being at the World Cup can raise awareness for the issues. Lion and sun flags will be on Iranian tv and the stadium will be full of anti ir fans which will be a good thing and it’s better than nothing . Not going just isolates us further and doesn’t benefit anyone. More isolation doesn’t help it will just make people forget about us.

this thread is looking at examples of political intervention in sport and whether it’s effective or not and there are some examples where it has been which I didn’t notice most notably South Africa and Syria some examples that I was ignorant of

and some examples where clearly no one gave a fuck

North Korea the most prominent , USA who Bombed some 8 countries this year , China Uyghurs etc . And don’t forget the countless sports athletes who took Qatar sponsorship deals even after all the deaths of the stadiums most notably David Beckham and Gary Neville

majority of footballers don’t give a f about political issues I’d argue

some players have stood their ground and are facing repercussions of it most notably Ali Daei who’s getting his assets seized now and that’s got some attention on twitter

[koorosh]

As news is slowly filtering out of Iran, the extent of the historical (planned and brutal) massacre of Jan 2026 is taking shape. Thousands of dead are now turning into tens of thousands of dead, among them many sportsmen and football players too.

The regime is taking a leaf out of Assad's playbook. People are locked in their homes. Schools are closed. Internet is shut down. Yet football games are happening, as if nothing important happened.

Providing any semblance of normalcy for this regime, for those of us outside of Iran, would be shameful... including going into the stadium.

If you want to protest, take your flags but don't go in the stadium. If you have tickets....leave your seats empty. If you were planning to watch... don't.

I am not sure Iran will be at WC but if so, Iranians shouldn't.

[OSTAD POOYA]

If the Islamic regime occupying Iran survives until the world cup I would say only traitors would go to the stadium to watch this team play. Any player that plays for this team is a traitor too. Close to 40K of our people murdered (Mostly young people), tens of thousands in jails, thousands have been blinded and handicapped and I cant phantom that anyone calling themselves Iranian would even get close to that stadium.

[Ardalan]

Be nazar mirese Shamsaei dobare zer zadeh. Shenidin? Hezbollaahiye ashqaal-kalle.

Forzat-talabe madar-roospi.Zedde iraniye chaaploos. Bayad dastgiresh kard va endakhtesh to yek chaale taarik.

[DR Strangemoosh]

If the Islamic regime occupying Iran survives until the world cup I would say only traitors would go to the stadium to watch this team play. Any player that plays for this team is a traitor too. Close to 40K of our people murdered (Mostly young people), tens of thousands in jails, thousands have been blinded and handicapped and I cant phantom that anyone calling themselves Iranian would even get close to that stadium.

Especially given the footballers who have been murdered and executed, I am hoping/expecting that the Iranian players and fans make a unified stand.

How can anyone prioritise football over this..?

[Super Shojaei]

Especially given the footballers who have been murdered and executed, I am hoping/expecting that the Iranian players and fans make a unified stand.

How can anyone prioritise football over this..?

no one is prioritising football- we are just having a discussion here on whether historically sports athletes can have a political impact - there have been some good examples on this thread where they have and there have been some good examples of when they have done jack shit .

infact since Mahsa Amini protests more iranian players have opted to move to iran due to the high wages of our league and even with 50k people being murdered on the streets the pgpl teams are still signing international footballers

Even Aluminium Arak have played two matches since their goalie was shot in the head! This is crazy shit!

Just because we are discussing these topics doesn't mean we are pro IR or pro regime , its just analysis which is what forum discussion is about really at the end of the day?

I still expect all three of Iran's games in the US to be sold out and i expect booing of anthems and lots of lion and sun flags- at least that gives us some media attention which is better than not being there . The ir will have to broadcast the booing of the anthem and the lion and sun flag standing tall , thats good for us . I dont think the team will boycott - if Aluminium Arak, Tractor and Sepahan aren't boycotting after having players killed (or in tractor's case a retired player) then i dont see TM boycotting the world cup or the players might be forced and threatened behind their backs to play? who knows?

[Super Shojaei]

If the Islamic regime occupying Iran survives until the world cup I would say only traitors would go to the stadium to watch this team play. Any player that plays for this team is a traitor too. Close to 40K of our people murdered (Mostly young people), tens of thousands in jails, thousands have been blinded and handicapped and I cant phantom that anyone calling themselves Iranian would even get close to that stadium.

Majority of people who will watch iran at the world cup most likely will be dispora iranians born and bred outside the country who see it as their first and last chance to watch iran live. I still see all of Iran's world cup matches being sold out regardless of how bad it gets , simply because it will be seen as a good opportunity to protest against the government - i mean a world cup match in Cali is as close to a home field advantage that Iran could imagine to get at a world cup. I dont think the iranians living in these cities are going to say no to a chance to protest right against the regime

[Super Shojaei]

Every main Syrian player returned to the Syria national football team when they had a real chance to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2018. You can clearly see the boycotts by players like Khribin and Somah were mainly about their club careers, where they earn more than a million per season in Arab clubs. Because of that, they try to avoid long trips or the risk of injuries against teams like Myanmar or Bangladesh, where poor pitch conditions can potentially cause injuries.

But when the Asian Cup come around, or when there is a real opportunity to reach the final stage of WC qualification, they all return to the national team.

yeah syria nearly made it under the Assad regime! My syrian friends still cheered the team back in 2018 - i believe they called up that German Syrian guy too dahoud or whats his name even whilst under the assad regime although he left the training camp because his demands weren't met or something along those lines.

[DR Strangemoosh]

Football players murdered by IR:

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/295a12a063f54c1fcea97446be3ba65df72150b1/0_764_1024_772/master/1024.jpg?width=1900&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none

dameh Karimi garm:

https://www.dw.com/en/protests-in-iran-ali-karimi-leads-sports-call-for-support/a-75673788

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/26/iran-football-ali-karimi-infantino-fifa-protest-deaths