Iran’s World Cup players are free to participate in the nationwide women’s rights protests while they are playing, but they must do it in accordance with the World Cup regulations, according to head coach Carlos Queiroz.
The rights activist HRANA news agency said 344 people have been killed and 15,280 arrested over the last two months of nationwide protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the ‘morality police’.
Iran claimed that her death was the result of pre-existing problems and charged its adversaries with inciting the protests to topple the government. The demonstrations have caused the clerical establishment, which has been in power for more than 40 years, to have a crisis of legitimacy.
Iran’s players were heavily criticized on Twitter in recent days for meeting with Iranian leaders prior to their departure for Doha, where they trained for the first time on Tuesday. When they played two warm-up internationals in September, covering up their national team badge was seen as a sign of support for the protests.
However, Queiroz says they are free to protest at the World Cup as long as it conforms with tournament regulations and the “spirit of the game”.
“Iran is exactly like your country. It follows the spirit of the game and the laws of FIFA. That’s how you express yourself in football. Everybody has the right to express themselves,” Queiroz told a British journalist at a pre-tournament press conference.
“You guys bend your knees in the games. Some people agree, some people don’t agree with that, and Iran is exactly the same.
“It is out of the question to think that the national team is suffering any sort of issues like that, the players only have one thing in their mind which is to fight for their dream to be in the second round.”
Queiroz, though, bristled and left the press conference after he was asked if he was ok with representing a nation that oppresses the rights of women.
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“How much you pay me to answer that question? How much you pay me?” he said. “Talk to your boss and at the end of the World Cup I can give you the answer if you make me a good offer. Don’t put in my mouth words that I don’t say. I’m asking how much money to answer.”
As he departed, Queiroz, referencing the United Kingdom’s issues, said: “Think about what happened in your country with immigration”.
