The removal of the symbol of Allah from Iran’s flag led the country to file a complaint with FIFA against the US Football Federation ahead of the teams’ match against each other at the 2022 World Cup on Tuesday in Qatar.
“The American Football Association’s Instagram page unprofessionally removed the symbol of Allah from the Iranian flag,” official news agency IRNA denounced after revealing that the Iranian federation had sent an email to FIFA “requesting it send a serious warning” to its colleague.
The flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran is made up of green, white and red and has a stylized form of the word Allah in the center, which was taken from the flag in a post on the instagram page of the US federation.
The Americans justified the “unique act” as a way to “show solidarity with the women of Iran”, recalling that “the flag has never been changed on the federation’s website.”
Tuesday’s matchup between Iran and the United States will mark a round of the World Cup duel that, in addition to always being of great political importance, will decide who advances in the competition.
After two rounds, Iran is second in Group B with three points, one more than the US, with England leading with four and Wales with one.
The countries have not had diplomatic relations since 1980, a few months after the hostage incident at the US embassy in Tehran, in November 1979: even so, there were scenes of fraternization between players from both countries at the 1998 World Cup in France.
Iran is currently the scene of a broad protest movement that began on September 16 with the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died after being detained by the vice police.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.