{"id":22935,"date":"2026-06-21T19:41:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T19:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/22935\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T19:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T19:41:21","slug":"iran-national-anthem-loudly-booed-again-at-world-cup-before-belgium-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/22935\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran national anthem loudly booed again at World Cup before Belgium game"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Iranian national anthem was loudly booed again at SoFI Stadium in Los Angeles<\/a> on Sunday after Iran<\/a> continued their World Cup campaign against Belgium in Group G.<\/p>\n

The reaction added to the hostile reception for the team following a similar atmosphere before they played New Zealand in a gripping 2-2 draw.<\/p>\n

The Fifa announcer at the stadium had asked fans to \u201capplaud for peace,\u201d but the response was relatively muted with just a smattering of noise in support of the message.<\/p>\n

Iran began their World cup campaign just hours after President Donald Trump<\/a> announced a preliminary US-Iran peace deal had been signed<\/a> to end America\u2019s\u2019 war with Iran.<\/p>\n

The team flew into the US last Sunday from their training base in Tijuana, Mexico, touching down in Los Angeles just as a deal was announced to end the conflict.<\/p>\n

Around 300 to 500 protesters \u2060gathered outside the stadium before the game, waving anti-Iranian government signs and flags. They said they did not want to attend the \u200bmatch as \u2060it would imply support for Tehran, as they protested against the country\u2019s regime and its crackdown on pro-democracy protestors.<\/p>\n

\"PlayersPlayers line up before the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group G match between Belgium and IR Iran (Getty)<\/p>\n

Inside, some fans then jeered Iran\u2019s anthem as it was played ahead of their opening match.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is the biggest home to the Iranian community outside of Iran after many fled the country following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. <\/p>\n

Iran’s participation \u2060in the tournament has been beset by controversy against the backdrop of the war, which began in February \u2060when the US and Israel launched strikes on the country.<\/p>\n

That followed nationwide protests in January inside Iran in which thousands were killed in a bloody government crackdown.<\/p>\n

\"IranIran played New Zealand in Los Angeles (Getty)<\/p>\n

In recent \u200cweeks, the football team changed their \u200bbase from Arizona to Mexico<\/a>, while their federation complained that not \u200call their staff received US visas and that tickets \u200ballocated to supporters had been withdrawn. <\/p>\n

A US administration official explained: \u201cWe will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifa<\/a>\u2019s ban on the pre-revolutionary Iran flag was upheld on Monday morning after an expedited hearing. The flag has the same colours as the current official flag but has a different lion-and-sun motif and is historically associated with the country\u2019s previous Shah-led regime.<\/p>\n

Fifa prohibits flags or apparel that have \u201cpolitical, offensive and\/or discriminatory nature\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge Curtis Kin ruled that the ban should be allowed to stand, stating: \u201cFree speech is incredibly important, it is sacred, a bedrock of our society, but it is not without limitation, such as private actor, on private property, and as shown by previous cases, regulating in reasonable way. I deny the application.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[13885,7,4988,10435,13827,6234,5731,3933,5693,10451,6229,13884,13652,6239,6237,3164,7905,13886,6243,6235,3934,6236,13651,1857,6231,2833,13852],"class_list":["post-22935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-athlete","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-national-soccer-team","tag-belgium-national-team","tag-california","tag-color-image","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-group-g","tag-horizontal","tag-in-a-row","tag-inglewood","tag-international-match","tag-international-team-soccer","tag-iran","tag-iran-national-soccer-team","tag-iran-national-team","tag-match-sport","tag-photography","tag-soccer","tag-soccer-player","tag-sofi-stadium","tag-sport","tag-sports-team","tag-usa","tag-world-sports-championship"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116789804104315274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}