Fifa World Cup: US Soccer briefly scrubs emblem from Iran flag at World Cup ‘to support women’
- The US team’s social media pages displayed a banner with the squad’s matches, with the Iranian flag only bearing its green, white and red colours
- By Sunday, the flag with the emblem had been restored in the Twitter banner; Facebook and Instagram posts with the altered flag had been removed
The US Soccer Federation briefly displayed Iran’s national flag on social media without the emblem of the Islamic Republic, saying the move supported protesters in Iran ahead of the two nations’ World Cup match on Tuesday.
Iran’s government reacted by accusing America of removing the name of God from its national flag.
The USSF decision added yet-another political firestorm to the Middle East’s first World Cup, one organisers had hoped would be spared of off-the-field controversies.
It occurred as the US prepared to face Iran in a decisive World Cup match already freighted by the decades of enmity between the countries and the nationwide protests challenging Tehran’s theocratic government.
The USSF said in a statement on Sunday morning it decided to forego the official flag on social media accounts to show “support for the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights.”
The Twitter account of the US men’s team displayed a banner with the squad’s matches in the group stage, with the Iranian flag only bearing its green, white and red colours. The same was seen in a post on its Facebook and Instagram accounts laying out the point totals so far in its group.