Fifa World Cup 2022: Iran’s winger says team is focused on playing, not political issues
- Several Iranian athletes have recently refrained from singing the national anthem to convey support for the demonstrations
- World Cup winger Jahanbakhsh, however, stressed the team was there to play football and not embroil themselves in politics
Iranian soccer player Alireza Jahanbakhsh said on Friday that the focus of the team at the World Cup in Qatar was resolutely on the competition and not on political issues related to the nationwide protests in his country.
Several Iranian sportsmen and women have used international competition to indicate their support for the protests that have rocked the country since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September.
Jahanbakhsh said the team would decide among themselves whether they would sing the national anthem before matches but “had never made a big deal out of it”, adding that goal celebrations were a personal matter for each player.
Clearly primed to talk about the issue, Jahanbakhsh switched from Farsi to English before opening with the suggestion that the questioning was an attempt to distract the Iranians before their first match against England on Monday.
“I assume you are probably part of the English media and I’m going to start with this: Like every one of you know, we are here for our duty and our duty is to play football,” he told reporters at the team’s training camp.