Iran Demands US Be Kicked Out of World Cup After Team Expresses Support For Protestors

Iran, which has been rocked by protests since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the regime’s morality police after they accused her of wearing “inappropriate” clothing, is extremely offended about a few temporarily-altered pixels on the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team’s social media accounts.

World Cup 2022 is currently taking place in Qatar amid numerous controversies including Qatari officials clashing with journalists and the deaths of thousands of migrant workers during construction of the tournament stadiums and hotels.

The U.S.’s next match is scheduled for Nov. 29 against Iran, and the team posted several images on their social media accounts, but with one tiny-yet-notable edit: the Islamic Republic emblem was removed from the Iranian flag for 24 hours, leaving the image with just green, white, and red stripes.

Multiple media outlets reported that the digital edit was done to show solidarity for the Iranians who were protesting Amini’s death and the regime’s oppression of women.

“We wanted to show our support for the women in Iran with our graphic for 24 hours,” the team told CBS Sports reporter Ben Jacobs, confirming that they would revert the graphic back to its original state after that period of time.

Last week, the Iranian soccer team refused to sing their own national anthem before their match with England, in their own expression of support for the protests.

A number of reporters noted that Iranians were posting messages on social media thanking the American team for showing solidarity with their people.

As planned, the @USMNT Twitter account has now reverted back to the complete icon for the Iranian flag in their posts about Tuesday’s upcoming match, along with a similar post on Instagram.

The restoration of the original flag graphic was insufficient for Iran, and Iranian state media agency Tasnim News called for the American team to be kicked out of the World Cup and suspended for ten games, according to CNN.

Tasnim News complained that the USMNT had violated a FIFA rule prohibiting “offend[ing] the dignity or integrity of a country, a person or a group of people” by “posting a distorted image of the flag of the Islamic Republic of #Iran on its official account.”

CNN world sport anchor Patrick Snell reported on the story on CNN Newsroom Sunday, telling anchor Jim Acosta that the upcoming match was “already very high profile” because it was a must-win game for the U.S. to avoid being eliminated from the World Cup, but it was not expected that the team would actually get kicked out of the tournament over the Iranian’s complaints about “image disruption.”

Watch above via CNN.