Lake Front Media

After a controversial social media post, Iran is pushing for the U.S. to be removed from the 2022 Qatar World Cup

 

SAN ANTONIO- Iran media has called for the removal of the U.S. from the 2022 World Cup after the official account of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) changed the Iranian flag on their social media platforms to show support for the protesters in Iran.

The USSF had temporarily posted the standings for Group B for the 2022 World Cup on their official Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts with Iran’s national flag without the Islamic Republic emblem. Now deleted, the post displayed the flag with only the green, white and red colors.

In the federations release statement, the USSF said they wanted to change the official flag for 24 hours to show their “support for the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights.”

“I think it was very brave,” said Ezra Valles, Our Lady of the Lake (OLLU) soccer player. “It’s good to see that a big country like the U.S. is showing support for rights and everything going on in Iran.”

The USSF said that they always planned to return to the original flag and that it was a one-time graphic, and now the flag currently has the emblem on all U.S. Soccer social media.

In response to the post, the Iran state media insisted that the U.S. should be suspended for ten games and immediately kicked out from the tournament for the “distorted image” of their country’s flag.

Samantha Nava, OLLU women’s soccer player, thinks that the response to the tweet is a bit uncalled for.

“I think Iran doesn’t want the attention drawn to them and that post brings them the unwanted attention, so they want to make the cause of that attention to go away,” said Nava.

The tweet from Tasmin News Agency reads: “By posting a distorted image of the flag of the Islamic Republic of #Iran on its official account, the # U.S. football team breached the @FIFAcom charter, for which a 10-game suspension is the appropriate penalty. Team #USA should be kicked out of the #WorldCup2022.”

In a follow-up tweet, the Iran state media further added: “The legal advisor of the Iranian Football Federation says the sports association will file a complaint against the U.S. Soccer Team to FIFA’s Ethics Committee after the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team disrespected the national flag of Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“I don’t think it is fair,” said Valles. “If they [Iran] want to be technical about that kind of stuff they [Iran] should be disqualified too because of everything going on in their country.”

Valles added that the strong backlash was also something of an excuse to advance as the next game to be played was Iran v. U.S.

Following the match between Iran and the U.S. Tuesday, November 29 at 1:00 p.m., Iran was eliminated from the group stage in a 1-0 loss.

For all updates on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, visit https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022.
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